Protests in Honduras against president heat up

Yahoo – AFP, January 27, 2019

Police try to put out tires set ablaze in a Honduras opposition demonstration
on January 27, 2019 (AFP Photo/ORLANDO SIERRA)

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Thousands of people took to the streets across Honduras on Sunday to protest against the president a year after his controversial inauguration.

Police used tear gas against protesters rallying against conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez as marchers set tires on fire and blocked two key highways heading north and south of the capital.

"There are people who have been gassed and beaten" by police, ex-president Manuel Zelaya told UNE TV.

Demonstrators waved red and black flags and some wore red vests, as shows of support for Zelaya's Freedom and Refounding Party, known as Libre for short.

Some chanted "GET OUT J.O.H.," before setting bonfires out of police sight.

"People need a fair government, not a dictatorship," Zelaya told reporters on a bus with supporters in the Colonia San Miguel neighborhood of the capital Tegucigalpa.

"Like wasps, we have launched a wave of escalating protests that will end in a national strike until this dictatorship falls."

Police hurled tear gas to break up demonstrators including Zelaya in another neighborhood, Colonia Kennedy.

Hernandez took office January 27, 2018 after being re-elected in a vote called fraud by the opposition alliance Zelaya leads.

Protesters took to the streets to demand that his candidate, popular television presenter Salvador Nasralla, be declared winner.

But the electoral tribunal declared Hernandez had won almost a month after the elections, amid violent protests also fueled by a constitutional ban on re-election.

Central American caravan continues toward US after rest

Yahoo – AFP, Yemeli ORTEGA, November 10, 2018

The metro in Mexico City opened an hour early to transport migrants toward
neighboring Mexico State (AFP Photo/Alfredo ESTRELLA)

Mexico City (AFP) - Around 5,000 Central Americans left Mexico City at dawn Saturday, brushing exhaustion and illness aside to get back on the road towards the United States as part of a migrant caravan that has drawn fury from President Donald Trump.

Between coughs and sneezes, the migrants packed up their makeshift camp in a sports park, where they had rested for six nights, and headed to the city's metro -- which opened an hour early to transport them toward neighboring Mexico State.

"We got cold sleeping out in the open, so that's why we're sick now. The kids have got lice, there's not always enough water to bathe them," Adamari Correa, a Guatemalan traveling with her sister and her sister's children, told AFP.

From there, the plan was to set off once again on foot toward Queretaro in central Mexico, still hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the US border.

"I don't want to walk, Mommy!" cried one little girl wrapped in a blanket, as her mother -- a sleeping mat on her back and two large bundles in each hand -- stood in an endless line waiting to board the five designated train, each carrying around 1,000 people, metro authorities estimated.

Some 1,000 police officers kept watch over the operation.

The caravan left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on October 13 and has covered more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) so far.

A group of Central American migrants is seen on the metro in Mexico City, on 

their way to Queretaro state (AFP Photo/Alfredo ESTRELLA)

At least two other caravans have since been established, defying threats from Trump -- who has decried what he describes as an "invasion" and ordered thousands of soldiers to the US-Mexico border.

On Friday, his administration unveiled a controversial new crackdown, announcing it would no longer allow people who enter the US illegally to claim asylum. Instead, those seeking political or other kinds of asylum will be heard exclusively at the border crossings.

Also on Friday, a group of 1,300 Central American migrants fragmented from the caravan to embark on the same path from Mexico City.

They quickly amassed on the sides of the wide high-speed road that snakes around the capital, leading to the exit toward Queretaro.

Taking the risk

"We're sick from the temperature changes," said Wilson Alexander Mejia, a 27-year-old laborer traveling alone.

"But we're determined to reach the border and beyond."

On the highway, truck drivers stopped to offer rides. Some migrants clung to vehicles; others found a seat perched on the hood, above the engine.

"Thank you Mexico! We go forward!" they yelled to passers-by, waving.

Other caravan members following behind trekked on foot or took public buses to reach the Queretaro exit, where trucks slowed to pick them up.

Under already intense sun, transport police were also seen helping migrants into one cargo vehicle's two trailers -- but they lacked any ventilation system.

"When you want something, you have to take risks and not care what happens," said Lucas Rocha, a 31-year-old on his second journey to the border. He said if he doesn't make it this time, he'll try again.

Years ago, he rode the notoriously dangerous cargo train route through Mexico known as "La Bestia" -- "the beast."

Along that route, migrants are routinely robbed and assaulted by organized criminals -- while scrambling onto moving trains sees many get dragged underneath and lose limbs.

Honduran migrant 'caravan' resumes from Mexico to US: AFP reporter

Yahoo – AFP, 21 October 2018

The authorities opened the border to women and children who were then taken to a
shelter in the city of Tapachula, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico

Thousands of Honduran migrants resumed their march toward the United States on Sunday from the southern Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo.

Mexican authorities on Thursday had managed to block the "caravan" of migrants on a border bridge between Mexico and Guatemala, but many later entered via a river separating the two countries.

"No one is going to stop us, after all we've gone through, like crossing the river" said 21-year-old Aaron Juarez, who was accompanied by his wife and baby and was walking with difficulty because of an injury.

"We are tired, but very happy, we are united and strong," added Edwin Geovanni Enamorado, a Honduran farmer who was part of the caravan, who said he was forced to leave his country because of intimidation by racketeering gangs.

The caravan left San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras last week, following a call on social networks relayed by a former Honduran deputy.

On Sunday morning, about a thousand migrants, including women and children, were still stranded on a border bridge hoping to enter Mexico legally via Guatemala.

The day before, the Mexican authorities opened the border to women and children who were then taken to a shelter in the city of Tapachula, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico.

US President Donald Trump has been tweeting about the caravan's progress and thanked Mexican authorities on Saturday for their efforts to block it.

"Mexico will not allow irregular entry into its territory, much less violent," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday evening in a video message.

More than 20 dead in Nicaragua protests: rights group

Yahoo – AFP, April 22, 2018

Violent protests against a proposed change to Nicaragua's pension system
 have left at least 20 people dead, a rights group says (AFP Photo/INTI OCON)

Managua (AFP) - More than 20 people have been killed in a clashes between Nicaraguan police and demonstrators in a wave of protests over pension reform, a local human rights body said Sunday.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights said it was still trying to verify figures, but that at least 20 people had been killed since protests erupted in the central American country on Wednesday over plans by President Daniel Ortega to reform the nation's pension system.

"We are dealing with more than 20 dead, but we are verifying because there is a lot of misinformation, the situation is really serious and beyond our possibilities to confirm," the Center's director Vilma Nunez told AFP.

On Friday, the government put the number of people killed in two days of protests in the capital Managua and other cities at 10, the last official figure.

The streets of Managua were rubble-strewn early Saturday after a night of clashes between police and demonstrators.

Nicabus, an international bus line with links to Costa Rica and Honduras, said it has been forced to suspend services due to the violence.

Protest groups on Sunday announced a march to the Polytechnic University in the capital where hundreds of students have been holed up since Thursday.

In a bid to calm the protests -- the biggest of his 11-year presidency -- Ortega agreed Saturday to speak with the private sector about social security reforms, only to be rebuffed by Nicaragua's top private-sector business union.

They said there could be no dialogue unless the government "immediately ceases police repression."

On Saturday local media reported that journalist Miguel Angel Gahona was shot dead by a suspected sniper in the city of Bluefields, on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

Journalists have reportedly faced attacks, been temporarily detained and had their work equipment stolen since the start of the protests. Meanwhile, four independent television outlets were taken off air on Thursday, although only one currently remains closed.

Honduran ex-president pleads guilty in NY

Yahoo – AFP, Jennie Matthew, 28 March 2016

Former Honduran president Rafael Callejas leaves the Brooklyn federal court in 

New York, March 28, 2016 after pleading guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy

 and wire fraud conspiracy in connection with the FIFA corruption scandal (AFP Photo/

Kena Betancur)

New York (AFP) - Former Honduran president Rafael Callejas pleaded guilty in New York Monday to conspiracy to commit racketeering and wire fraud in connection with the FIFA corruption scandal rocking world football.

The 72-year-old, who has been free on a $4 million bail in the United States since leaving Honduras by private jet last December to face American justice, will be sentenced on August 5.

The two counts each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

"Guilty," Callejas told Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in a federal court in Brooklyn, entering his plea. He spoke calmly in fluent English with a US accent, and was dressed in a dark suit.

Callejas served as president of Honduras from 1990 to 1994. He was head of the country's football federation from 2002 to 2015, and is also a former member of FIFA's Television and Marketing Committee.

He originally faced eight charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering, to which he pleaded not guilty on December 15.

"I knew it was wrong," he told court Monday, admitting to receiving bribes for awarding media and marketing rights contracts to a Florida-based company for Honduran FIFA World Cup qualifier matches.

As part of his plea, he agreed to forfeit $650,000 -- $180,000 to be paid within one week and the balance due within 12 months.

He is one of 39 officials and marketing executives accused of soliciting and receiving tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in a case that has sparked an unprecedented crisis at FIFA.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter looking on with fake dollars note flying around him thrown 

by a protester during a press conference at the football's world body headquarter's on 

July 20, 2015 in Zurich (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Extradition

US prosecutors accused Callejas of receiving $1.6 million in bribes between March 2011 and January 2013 for broadcast rights of games played by the Honduran national team.

They said Florida company Media World paid these bribes from its US bank accounts through an intermediary, to overseas accounts of Callejas and a co-conspirator.

Monday's plea brings to 14 the number of individuals to have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with US prosecutors in the FIFA case in exchange for a possible reduction in sentence.

Callejas told the judge that he had been under treatment from a cardiologist and was currently taking medication.

Last Tuesday, Costas Takkas, the former Cayman Islands Football Federation general secretary, became the latest FIFA suspect extradited from Switzerland to appear in a New York court.

Takkas pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Judge Viktor Pohorelsky and was released on a $1 million bond with a $25,000 cash deposit, court documents show.

The 57-year-old accountant, who has British and Greek citizenship, will be confined to house arrest in Florida, allowed to leave only to see his doctors, lawyers, go to court or to attend religious services.

Takkas, who was born in Cyprus, was one of six FIFA officials arrested in May 2015 in Zurich at the request of US authorities.

The US judge granted him 60 minutes of exercise a day in a gym in the building of his Florida residence.

The US corruption investigation precipitated the downfall of longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his former heir apparent, Michel Platini, who have both been banned from the sport for six years for ethics violations. 

Thousands attend funeral of slain Honduran environmentalist

Yahoo – AFP, Noe Leiva, 6 March 2016

People attend the funeral of murdered indigenous activist Berta Caceres and call

for justice in La Esperanza, Honduras on March 5, 2016 (AFP Photo/Orlando Sierra)

La Esperanza (Honduras) (AFP) - Thousands of mourners paid their final tributes Saturday to Berta Caceres, the indigenous activist killed on Thursday, demanding justice for the renowned environmentalist.

The 45-year-old head of the Civic Council of Indigenous and People's Organizations (COPINH) was gunned down in her hometown of La Esperanza, 125 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of the Honduran capital Tegicigalpa, in what her family has called an assassination.

Mourners from across the country attending the funeral in La Esperanza chanted "Justice, justice!" "Berta lives!" and "The struggle continues!" as her coffin was taken to a church service before its burial.

Caceres's brother Gustavo, one of the first to find her body, told AFP that at least two masked men entered the back of the house where his sister was sleeping early on Thursday.

She got up to investigate the noise and confronted the men, who fractured her arm and leg before shooting her at least eight times at point blank range, he said.

A bullet also wounded Gustavo Castro Soto of the organization Friends of the Earth Mexico, who had been sleeping in the next room, when he came out to see what was happening. The attackers fled after he pretended to be dead.

Relatives mourn over murdered indigenous activist Berta Caceres' coffin during her

 funeral in La Esperanza, 200 km northwest of Tegucigalpa, on March 5, 2016 (AFP

Photo/Orlando Sierra)

Caceres lived in the house, which belongs to her mother, until moving out two months ago.

"Now we understand it was a way to protect her family," Gustavo Caceres said.

A mother of four who would have turned 45 Friday, Caceres rose to prominence for leading the indigenous Lenca people in a struggle against a hydroelectric dam project that would have flooded large areas of native lands and cut off water supplies to hundreds.

In 2015, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the world's top award for grassroots environmental activism.

She persevered in her activism despite numerous death threats.

Caceres was arrested in 2013 for illegal possession of firearms in what critics say was harrassment. She was acquitted in 2014.

Caceres's killing has drawn international condemnation, including from the United Nations, the United States and many environmental activists.

The activist's family has accused the authorities of trying to mask her death as a random murder, insisting that she was assassinated because of her activism against environmental destruction by large mining and hydroelectric companies.

They also accuse the government of responsibility in her murder for failing to provide protection and investigate the threats against her.

Thousands attend funeral of slain Honduran environmentalist https://t.co/l8TsqOA6CL pic.twitter.com/yERuJY4i3E

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 5, 2016

Top FIFA officials among 16 indicted in widening scandal

Yahoo – AFP, 4 Dec 2015

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks about the corruption scandal

 engulfing FIFA at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on December 3,

2015 (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - Sixteen more top football officials were charged in a dramatic widening of the FIFA corruption scandal on Thursday, as US prosecutors vowed to leave no stone unturned in their quest to root out graft.

Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials.

Among those indicted on Thursday were the president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), Juan Angel Napout, and Alfredo Hawit, head of the North, Central American and Caribbean ruling body (CONCACAF).

Other notable officials indicted include Ricardo Teixeira, the once-powerful former head of the Brazilian Football Confederation and a former FIFA vice-president.

The indicted also included Ariel Alvarado, a Panamanian official who currently sits on FIFA's disciplinary committee.

The main players in the deepening FIFA corruption scandal (135 x 156 mm)

(AFP Photo/S.Ramis-K.Tian/P. Defosseux)

"The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out. You will not escape our focus," US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, describing the allegations as "outrageous" and "unconscionable."

Lynch revealed that eight more people indicted since authorities launched an earlier wave of FIFA raids and arrests in Switzerland in May had now pleaded guilty.

"I can report eight additional defendants have agreed to plead guilty for their involvement in the corruption scheme," she said.

Millions forfeited

Among those who had pleaded guilty were Jeffrey Webb, a former FIFA vice president and head of CONCACAF.

Webb, who was indicted when the corruption scandal erupted earlier this year, has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering conspiracy.

As part of his plea deal, Webb has agreed to forfeit more than $6.7 million in assets.

Webb and former CONCACAF chief Jack Warner, who was indicted earlier, were also accused of siphoning off cash intended for disaster relief, according to the new indictment.

"Certain of the defendants and their co-conspirators, including the defendant Jack Warner and Jeffrey Webb, took advantage of these opportunities and embezzled or otherwise personally appropriated funds provided by FIFA, including funds intended for natural disaster relief," the indictment read.

Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a

 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn

 raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials The unprecedented 

corruption scandal engulfing FIFA widened on December 3 with the arrests of

 two more top officials in another dramatic dawn raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich.

(AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Napout and Hawit are both in Switzerland where they are now fighting extradition to the United States, officials said.

Both men are suspected of taking millions of dollars in bribes in return for selling marketing rights for regional tournaments and World Cup qualifying matches, according to the US indictment.

The investigation also covered the payment and receipt of bribes in connection with the sponsorship of the Brazilian soccer federation by a major US sportswear company, and the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election. Lynch would not confirm that the US sportswear company was Nike.

Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey meanwhile said those indicted had run corrupt schemes spanning decades.

"For decades, these defendants used their power as the leaders of soccer federations throughout the world to create a web of corruption and greed that compromises the integrity of the beautiful game," Comey said.

Lynch meanwhile dismissed claims by FIFA's suspended President Sepp Blatter that the US investigation was triggered by sour grapes over the country's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, controversially awarded to Qatar in a 2010 vote.

"I think (Blatter) is well aware of the nature of our charges," Lynch said.

"This covers years of conduct by dozens and dozens of people from the past into the future. I called it outrageous and unconscionable. That still stands."

Central America tests drought-resistant 'miracle' beans

Yahoo – AFP, Carlos Mario Marquez, 1 December 2015

The CENTA-EAC bean is the product of hybridization: the combining of

naturally formed plants to form a cross-breed (AFP Photo/Marvin Recinos)

Quezaltepeque (El Salvador) (AFP) - "These beans are miraculous because they beat droughts," crowed Manuel Ceren, a farmer in El Salvador trying out a hybrid, climate change-defying crop produced by Salvadoran, Colombian and Honduran experts.

In Quezaltepeque, a village 30 kilometers north of San Salvador, Ceren and 13 other co-farmers feel fortunate to be the first testing the bean.

They proudly showed off an abundant harvest of around 0.7 of a hectare (1.7 acres) of the bean grown on the farm where they work, to the awed gaze of visitors.

Farmers in Quezaltepeque are trying out

 a hybrid, climate change-defying bean

produced by Salvadoran, Colombian and 

Honduran experts (AFP Photo/Marvin

Recinos)

"We were very careful with this initial experiment with these beans, which were hit with a 15-day drought and two storms," the 45-year-old manager of the farm, Baltazar Garcia, told AFP.

"Other people called us crazy. But today a lot of them are admiring the harvest."

The type of light red bean they are using, which is also resistant to an infection known as bean golden yellow mosaic virus, was painstakingly developed with the help of El Salvador's National Center for Agricultural and Forestry Technology (CENTA).

Dubbed CENTA-EAC, the bean is not a biotech crop designed by genetic engineers slicing up chromosomes.

Rather it is the product of hybridization: the combining of naturally formed plants to form a cross-breed.

"You could say it's the simple cross-fertilization of red bean and black bean plants in a process that in this case took five years of selecting and discarding plants until the desired variety was created," a CENTA researcher, Aldemaro Clara, explained.

A search for better crops

The Salvadoran experiment came as a prolonged drought settled on Central America this year, causing heavy crop losses across a broad swathe of land stretching from Costa Rica to Guatemala.

Because of the lack of water, 2.3 million small Central American farmers will need food aid, the UN's World Food Program has warned.

The CENTA-EAC bean is part of a decade-old effort by laboratories in the region to come up with hybrids able to survive and even prosper during the recurring droughts. With the help of farmers, it was noted that it was possible to come up with crops adapted to extreme weather conditions.

"Our mission to produce seeds resistant to climate change, which in this region means against high temperatures, long droughts and extremely heavy rainy seasons," Rolando Ventura, another CENTA researcher, said.

The whole region is working along the same lines. In Guatemala, scientists are working on the ICTA-Chorti, which will not only resist droughts but also be rich in iron.

In Nicaragua, another institute has made a variety of red bean, the INTA-Tomabu, also able to survive when water is scarce.

A farmer harvests and cleans beans of the CENTA-EAC variety at a farm in 

Quezaltepeque (AFP Photo/Marvin Recinos)

Corn, tomatoes and cacao

Candida Lazon, who is trying out that bean on her farm, said: "Here, it almost never rains. We have managed to grow the INTA-Tomabu bean by watering it just once every 12 days. I'm thrilled about this seed because it adapts to the very dry local climate."

It's not beans that are being made to "adapt" to climate change.

In Panama, one of the first countries in the region to work with types of corn resistant to changing weather, has come up with a new seed.

"In the case of corn, these seeds are compatible with higher temperatures, 35 to 36 degrees (95 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit), and drought-tolerant," said Jose Alberto Yau, deputy director for seeds at the country's IDIAP Agriculture and Fishing Research Institute.

In El Salvador, farmers already have the option of using a type of corn called CENTA-Pasaquina, but it has fallen from favor because of its perceived low yield.

Nicaragua meanwhile has a type of virus-resistant tomato seed christened INTA-Jinotega that copes with temperatures over 25 degrees centigrade.

In Costa Rica, it's cocoa -- a crop essential to the economy -- that is being looked at in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center with hopes of coming up with a more resistant variety.

Thousands join anti-corruption march in Honduras

Tens of thousands of Hondurans have marched in Tegucigalpa to demand the president's resignation over a corruption scandal. They also want an independent probe into one of the country's worst corruption scandals.

Deutsche Welle, 27 Juni 2015

On Friday, tens of thousands of Hondurans marched in Tegucigalpa, many with torches in hand, calling for the resignation of President Juan Hernandez.

The protesters crowded onto the city's Suyapa Boulevard for more than a kilometer (0.62 miles), marching to the presidential palace from an impoverished neighborhood in the capital.

'This is no president, he's a criminal'

The crowd, which organizers estimated at around 50,000 people, sounded horns and carried candle-lit torches, demanding the creation of an anti-corruption commission and rejecting any dialogue initiative by the president.

According to AFP news agency, many of the protesters carried banners and held anti-government signs with slogans such as "Honduras is ours" and "This is no president, he's a criminal."

With torches in hand some 50,000
Hondurans have protested against
corruption

The opposition has accused the president of skimming $90 million (80.6 million euros) out of Honduras' public health system budget of more than $300 million for his 2013 election campaign.

Hernandez has denied wrongdoing and played down the amount. However, he admitted that his 2013 presidential campaign took some $150,000 from companies linked to the scandal, adding that he and his party were unaware of where the money had come from.

Asking for UN support

Following the allegations, Honduras has asked the UN for support to combat widespread corruption in the country.

According to the German news agency DPA, the Honduran Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales told the local news paper "La Tribuna" that a petition had been sent to UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon for this purpose.

With this petition they are asking UN officials to play the role of mediator in this process and to support a "national dialogue," German news agency EPD reported.

ra/ng (Reuters, EPD, AFP)

Fighting animal cruelty in LatAm, one tweet at a time

MSN – AFP, Alina Rodriguez, 10 Feb 2015

Veterinarian Carmen Soto treats a toucan that lost the upper half of 

his beak after being attacked by youths, on February 4, 2015. (AF)

Veterinarian Carmen Soto is gently swabbing what is left of Grecia the toucan's bright beak, preparing to fit him with a prosthesis to replace the part hacked off by vandals.

The images of the bird's mutilated red-and-yellow beak caused outrage last month in Costa Rica, where donations for a prosthesis came pouring in after his story went viral on social media -- a new weapon in the fight against the age-old problem of animal cruelty in Latin America.

Appalled citizens sent in $3,000 to outfit Grecia with a prosthetic beak after a gang of rowdy youths attacked the bird, which activists say is a sort of half-wild, half-tame mascot for the central town of Grecia.

A similar case shook Honduras in January, when a group of young people blew up a stray dog with fireworks and posted a video online.

And in Peru, social media users were repulsed when a man whose children had been bitten by the neighbor's dog claimed revenge by tying the animal to the back of his car and dragging him through the street.

Veterinarian Carmen Soto, in charge of an animal rescue centre, in
La Garita, Alajuela, 45 km north of San Jose. (AFP)

Such cases usually go unpunished in Latin America, where laws against animal cruelty are mostly weak or non-existent.

The network of organizations fighting the phenomenon is also small and underfunded.

But social media is changing that, said Cynthia Dent, executive director for the Humane Society International in Latin America.

"Twitter and Facebook have increased our awareness of cases of cruelty in Latin America, said Dent from the Costa Rican capital San Jose, the group's regional headquarters.

"In the past we would only hear about it when there was a case reported in the press. But now we have outraged people who take advantage of social media to highlight these cases of cruelty and join forces against them."

Those protests are starting to spill over from the Internet to the street, pressuring the authorities to act.

"The visibility that social networks give to animal cruelty puts more pressure to pass laws," Dent told AFP.

$2 fines

Demonstrators have held rallies in recent months in Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Uruguay calling for harsher laws to fight animal cruelty.

In countries such as Mexico and Uruguay, animal cruelty is a crime but offenders are rarely punished.

Most countries in Latin America impose only a small fine for abusers.

In Colombia, for example, the fines range from $2 to $20.

"These laws are on the books, but they're not enforced. Prosecutors aren't trained to implement them," said Leonora Esquivel, head of animal rights group Anima Naturalis Mexico.

In Costa Rica, a country whose economy depends on tourists drawn to its world-famous rainforests and wildlife, activists are calling on Congress to impose prison terms for animal cruelty -- a fight that has gained momentum since the attack on Grecia the toucan.

Lawmakers wary of the legislation are trying to amend it to continue allowing bullfights, a tradition inherited from Spain during the colonial era that remains popular in much of Latin America.

In Venezuela, bullfights remain legal alongside cockfights and "coleo," a Latin American twist on rodeo where cowboys on horseback try to grab young bulls by the tail and pull them to the ground.

Bulls are also at the center of a legal row in Colombia, where a court last week ordered the reopening of the bullfighting ring in the capital Bogota, whose mayor, Gustavo Petro, had ordered it closed in 2012 as part of a campaign against cruelty to animals.

Obama wants cooperation from Central America over immigrants

Tens of thousands of teenagers from Central America are illegally crossing the US border. President Obama has now pressed for cooperation during new talks with the region's presidents.

Deutsche Welle, 26 July 2014

"Parents need to know this is an incredibly dangerous situation," US President Barack Obama warned a few weeks ago, in light of the surge of minor migrants - more than 50,000 this year alone, attempting to cross the Mexican border. Now the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador their counterpart at the White House to discuss the problem, which has sparked an intense debate in the US.

The meeting had an important function, Dan Restrepo of explained: it was an urgently needed signal for some intensive crisis management. "It is not a problem you can switch on and off," he told DW. "And you can't solve it quickly either - you have to work permanently on the dynamic and complex circumstances."

Obama is under pressure due to the
increasing number of teenage refugees

Carl Meacham of the think tank thinks there is much lost ground to make up: "US policy in this area has been inconsistent - there hasn't been much engagement," he said. But it is doubtful if the summit, which had few tangible results, will relieve Obama in the domestic debate.

There has been a continuous barrage of criticism from the Republican Party, which makes Obama responsible for the humanitarian crisis at the border. How intense the debate is was demonstrated by the deployment of Texan Guards at the Mexican border and the assessment of the deployment of the National Guard by Obama himself.

Scaring people off

Charlie Dent, Republican representative from Pennsylvania, in whose constituency emergency shelters for children have been built, told DW what the Republican majority in the House of Representatives wanted from the meeting: "President Obama has to make it very clear that these children will be sent back," he said. In fact, Obama did threaten fast deportations, and he claimed that the latest decrease in migrant numbers was a sign of success.

But another demand is much more difficult for him to act on. Dent says Obama should "also tell the presidents of these countries that the US will change its laws" to be able to send back the children immediately. To do that Obama would have to change a law signed by George W. Bush that grants minor migrants a court hearing, and the Democrat Party will be unlikely to accept that.

US complicity

The Democrats triggered problems in Washington even before Obama met the presidents from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Some argued that the US is complicit in the current exodus of unaccompanied minors smuggled across the border by criminal organizations.

"I think we have a shared responsibility," Meacham agreed. "It is true that the United States is a major customer of drugs. On the other hand it is the responsibility [of the Central American governments] to create the necessary security."

Congress is refusing to grant an emergency
program to ease the refugee crisis

At the moment these three countries are seen as strongholds for criminality that force the children to leave. "I talked to a five-year-old girl who came unaccompanied to the US from Central America," said Dent. "She didn't know how to swim, but she crossed dangerous rivers and travelled on the roof of a train to get from Mexico to the US."

No emergency program

So far Dent's Republican Party has refused to grant the $3.7-billion (2.75-billion-euro) emergency program that Obama wants to enable better emergency housing, more immigration judges, and increased border security. They also opposed another one of Obama's pilot projects: to grant refugee status to the children in their countries of origin and therefore spare them from the dangerous voyage to the US.

The Republicans' attitude of total opposition is one of the biggest challenges, says Meacham. "The malfunction of the political system is the other big hurdle beside the crisis at the border," he said. "If we can't act in consensus, not only will the situation at the border get worse, but so will the chaos in the Central American countries."

The White House summit is just the prelude to more talks at the highest diplomatic levels between the US and the three affected states - and Restrepo is expecting Vice President Joe Biden, who attended the meeting, to weigh in regularly.

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