Latin American states weigh legalizing pot

Google – AFP, 18 May 2013

View of marijuan plants in Los Algodones community, Culiacan, Sinaloa State,

Mexico on January 30, 2012 (AFP/File, Alfredo Estrella)

WASHINGTON — An Organization of American States report has called for taking a closer look at possibly legalizing marijuana in Latin America.

The report examined an issue that until recently was a taboo topic in the region. Politicians, desperate for measures to control drug-linked violence, are now open to legalization.

The report does not make specific proposals, but looks at different scenarios in which countries could handle the drug trade blamed on scores of deaths.

"Never before has a multilateral organization engaged in such an inclusive and intellectually legitimate analysis of drug policy options," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the largest US group pushing for reforming drug policies in the United States.

"It would have been inconceivable just two years ago that the OAS -- or any multilateral organization -- would publish a document that considers legalization, decriminalization and other alternatives to prohibitionist policies on an equal footing with status quo policies."

According to Nadelmann, "political pressures by the US and other governments would have made that impossible."

The new focus on alternatives to prohibition reflects the "unhappiness" of Latin Americans toward a US policy that continues to focus on crop eradication and militarized crackdowns, said Peter Hakim at the Inter-American Dialogue, a leading Washington think tank.

"Legalization is one alternative. I don't think it's going to really be widely adopted, but is a way of getting the debate started," he said.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza traveled to Bogota to personally hand the report to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Santos, a key US ally in Latin America, is also one of the leading voices in calling for a fresh look at counter-narcotics policies.

According to the report, the regulation of some drugs would allow governments to reassign resources to the prevention and treatment of addicts.

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Former Argentine military dictator Videla dies in jail

Deutsche Welle, 17 May 2013

Former Argentine military dictator Jorge Videla has died in prison from natural causes. Head of a military junta which organized a coup in 1976, he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

Up to 30,000 people were kidnapped and "disappeared" by the military during a so-called "Dirty War" campaign against liberals and leftists under Videla's rule at the head of a junta from 1976 to 1981. Suspected opponents were swept into secret prisons, tortured and murdered.

Videla, 87, came to power in a 1976 military coup. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for crimes against humanity: the disappearance of 31 prisoners. In 2011 he was given a separate 50 year sentence for the theft of children born to female prisoners.

He showed no remorse for the junta's record of human rights abuses. In a recent trial he said "As I have done before, I wish to say that this court lacks jurisdiction to judge me for cases involving the army in the anti-subversive struggle."

Federal Prison Service Director Victor Hortel said Videla died Friday morning in the Marcos Paz prison southwest of Buenos Aires. "Last night he didn't feel well. He didn't want to eat and this morning they found him dead in his cell," Cecilia Pando, the head of the Association of Family and Friends of Political Prisoners, told reporters.

jm/dr (AP, AFP)

Brazil judicial panel clears way for gay marriage

France24, 14 May 2013

Brazilians Marcelo Sales Leite (L), and Roberto Fraga da Silva, hold
hands as they get married in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 13, 2009.

AFP - A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses.

The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples.

"This is the equivalent of authorizing homosexual marriage in Brazil," said Raquel Pereira de Castro Araujo, head of the human rights committee of the Brazilian bar association.

The Brazilian Congress, where a strong religious faction opposes same sex marriage, has not yet approved a law legalizing gay marriages. And the council's decisions are subject to appeal before the Supreme Court.

But Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa said there was no reason for the government's marriage licensing offices to wait for the Brazilian Congress to pass a law authorizing same-sex marriage before extending the right to gays.

He noted that the Supreme Court in 2011 recognized stable homosexual unions, ruling that the constitution guaranteed them the same rights as heterosexual couples.

"Are we going to require the approval of a new law by the Congress to put into effect the decision that was already taken by the Supreme Court? It makes no sense," he said in comments quoted by the G1 news website.

The Supreme Court decision "is binding" and should be followed by the lower courts, he said.

Some offices have granted marriage licenses to gay couples and others have not. While some state courts have recognized same-sex marriages, the council's decision was the first to set a national standard.

"Since the Congress is so slow, and doesn't decide, the judicial branch took the lead," said Luiz Kignet, a specialist in family law at PLKC Advogados in Sao Paulo.

"The law is necessary, the judicial branch is not suppressing the obligation to have a law," he said.

But it is saying that same-sex marriage is constitutional, and the council's decision should accelerate the approval of a law formally authorizing homosexual marriage.

"When there is a law, everything is easier. The law regulates concrete cases for everyone," he said.

In theory, the council's decision could be challenged by the Supreme Court, but it is not likely to, said Kignet, saying it had reached a point of no return.

Rainforest plays critical role in hydropower generation

BBC News, Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, 14 May 2013

The proposed Belo Monte dam will be one of the biggest in the world, but
deforestation could limit the amount of energy generated

Related Stories

• Brazil drought stokes worries over energy shortages
• Work to resume on Belo Monte dam
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Deforestation in the Amazon region could significantly reduce the amount of electricity produced from hydropower, says a new study.

Scientists say the rainforest is critical in generating the streams and rivers that ultimately turn turbines.

If trees continue to be felled, the energy produced by one of the world's biggest dams could be cut by a third.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many countries in tropical regions are turning to hydropower as an untapped source of energy. In Brazil around 45 new hydro plants are in the planning stage.

Rainforests, by their very name, are prime locations for the dams that are usually required to create the force of water needed to generate electric power.

Until now the presumption has been that cutting down the trees near a dam actually increased the amount of water flowing into the dams.

Trees of life

But in this new study the researchers took a broader look at the climate projections for the Amazon basin and not just at the rivers on which the dams were built.

They found that rainforests are more critical than previously thought as they produce the rain that fills the streams that ultimately drives the rivers and the turbines.

"Rainforests generate their own rainfall, " Dr Claudia Stickler, from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute International Programme (IPAM-IP), told BBC News.

Brazil has had some success in curbing deforestation but there are worries
that the rate will rise in the coming years

"They pull water out of the soil on a daily basis, they stay green and dark. The main reason is they are always pumping moisture into the atmosphere which ultimately ends up being rainfall and that's what keeps these streams going too," she said.

The scientists found that thanks to current levels of deforestation in the region, rainfall is 6-7 percent lower than it would be with full forest cover. Predictions for 2050 suggest a 40% loss of forest, meaning significantly less rain and 35-40 less electric power.

They researchers looked closely at Brazil's highly controversial Belo Monte dam, said to be the world's third largest hydropower project. If deforestation continues the scientists say, the project will deliver 30% less power than currently estimated. That's equivalent to the energy used by 4 million Brazilians.

"We now have very strong evidence that Brazil's ability to generate electricity depends on forest conservation," said co-author Dr Daniel Nepstad, executive director of IPAM-IP.

"These results aren't just important for Brazil - rainforest cover could affect energy production in wet tropical areas throughout the Amazon, and in Africa and South East Asia as well."

The researchers say their work shows that rainforests are not just important for biodiversity, for the storage of carbon but for the very tangible issue of energy production.

The authors praise the steps that Brazil has taken in recent years to curb deforestation, but they are concerned that the clearing of trees could now be on the rise once again.

"In the last year, Brazil has made tremendous progress towards ending deforestation, bringing clearing rates down to 24% of the historical average. But these numbers are starting to creep up again, and everyone should be concerned," said Dr Nepstad.

"Ending deforestation should be viewed as an issue of national energy security."

Mayan pyramid bulldozed by Belize construction crew

BBC News, 14 May 2013

Related Stories

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Only the core of the pre-Columbian
mound was left standing

Officials in Belize say a construction company has destroyed one of the country's largest Mayan pyramids.

Head of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology Jaime Awe said the Noh Mul temple was levelled by a road-building company seeking gravel for road filler.

The Mayan temple dates back to pre-Columbian times and is estimated to be 2,300 year old. Only a small core of the pyramid was left standing.

Police said they were investigating the incident.

Archaeologists said this was not the first incident of its kind.

"Bulldozing Maya mounds for road fill is an endemic problem in Belize," Prof Normand Hammond told the Associated Press news agency.

Archaeologists said they were alerted to the destruction late last week.

The Maya complex lies on private land but under Belizean law, any pre-Hispanic ruins come under government protection.

Dr John Morris of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology said the workers would have been aware of what they were doing.

"It is incredible that someone would actually have the gall to destroy this building out here," he told local TV channel News 7.

"There is absolutely no way that they would not know that these are Maya mounds," he said about the ancient structure.

Prosecutors said they were considering bringing criminal charges against the construction company.

AFP protests Nicaragua expulsion of photojournalist

France24 - AFP, 13 May 2013

Chilean AFP photographer Hector Retamal (L) walks upon arrival from
 Nicaragua, in San Jose, Costa Rica on May 11, 2013. AFP sent a formal
 letter of protest to the Nicaraguan government following his arrest and
expulsion.

AFP - Agence France-Presse sent a formal letter of protest to the Nicaraguan government on Monday following the arrest and subsequent expulsion of a Chilean photojournalist at the weekend.

AFP photographer Hector Retamal, 37, was deported to Costa Rica on Saturday after being detained for four days without charge following his arrest near the presidential residence in Managua on Tuesday last week.

Retamal had been on his way to cover the meeting of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki when he was detained.

In a letter addressed to government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo, who also is Ortega's wife, AFP Latin America director Juliette Hollier-Larousse protested Retamal's treatment in the strongest terms.

"On behalf of AFP, I must strongly protest against his detention for four days, the conditions of his detention -- four days without the ability to communicate with the outside world or any legal assistance -- and his subsequent expulsion, without any official explanation," the letter said.

"I am outraged by the treatment given to our photographer, who was arrested during the normal performance of his work functions."

The letter emphasized that AFP remained committed to its core principles of reporting with objectivity and reliability, both in Nicaragua and the other 149 countries from which it reports.

Retamal said upon his arrival in Costa Rica on Saturday he had no inkling of why he had been arrested or held.

"I do not understand why I had so many days in solitary confinement for trying to take pictures of a meeting of the president," Retamal said. "These were very difficult, anxious days, not knowing what would happen to me."

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Pope Francis gives Catholic church hundreds of new saints

Two Latin American women canonised by Argentinian pontiff, as well as 813 'martyrs of Otranto' slain in 1480 by Turkish invaders

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in the Vatican City, Sunday 12 May 2013

A picture hangs at St Peter's of Laura of St Catherine of Siena, one of the new
 saints named by Pope Francis in his first canonisation mass. Photograph:
Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis has given the Catholic church a raft of new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonisation ceremony before tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square.

The "martyrs of Otranto" were 813 Italians who were killed in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders to renounce Christianity.

The South American pope also canonised two Latin American women, including Colombia's first saint: a nun, Laura of St Catherine of Siena, who journeyed with five other women into the forests in 1914 to be a teacher and spiritual guide to indigenous people. Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, was among VIPs attending the ceremony.

Also canonised was Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, a Mexican who dedicated herself to nursing the sick and helped Catholics avoid persecution during a government crackdown on the faith in the 1920s. Also known as Mother Lupita, she hid the archbishop of Guadalajara in an eye clinic for more than a year after fearful local Catholic families refused to shelter him.

The new saints were approved for canonisation in a decree read by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 February, during the same ceremony in which he announced his resignation as pontiff. Benedict, the first pope to retire in 600 years, is now devoting himself to prayer and living in a monastery on the Vatican grounds.

Francis told the crowd that the martyrs were a source of inspiration, especially for "so many Christians, who, right in these times and in so many parts of the world, still suffer violence", and prayed that they would receive "the courage of loyalty and to respond to evil with good".

That was seen as a reference to Christian churches that have been attacked in Nigeria and Iraq, as well as Catholics in China loyal to the Vatican who have been subject to harassment and sometimes jail over past decades.

Francis, the first pope from the Jesuit order, praised the Colombian saint for "instilling hope" in indigenous people. He said she taught them in a way that "respected their culture". Many Catholic missionaries over the centuries have been criticised for demanding that natives renounce local traditions viewed as primitive.

He hailed the Mexican saint for renouncing a comfortable life to work with the sick and poor. Mother Lupita's example, said Francis, should encourage people not to "get wrapped up in themselves, their own problems, their own ideas, their own interests, but to go out and meet those who need attention, comprehension, and help".

Raul Castro’s daughter calls for ‘conga’ dance against homophobia in Cuba

The Raw Story, AFP, Friday, May 10, 2013

Cuban leader Raul Castro’s daughter, a sexologist and supporter of gay rights, has urged Cubans to join a traditional “conga” dance against homophobia taking place in Havana on Saturday.

“We are the heirs of a strongly patriarchal Spanish culture, very homophobic and very discriminating,” said Mariela Castro, whose father succeeded her uncle and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro as the island’s president in 2006.

“It’s time these prejudices were eliminated,” she said in comments published in state newspaper Granma.

The dance, to the beat of drums and trumpets, is part of a national “day against homophobia” — actually 10 days worth of events that started Wednesday and runs through May 18.

Traditionally stigmatized in Cuba, homosexuality was fiercely repressed for many years by the regime, which interned gays in work camps in the 1960s and ostracized them in the 1970s under Fidel’s rule.

Cubans members of the gay and lesbian community participate

in a march against homophobia on May 11, 2013 in Havana.

Related Article:

Dance parade against homophobia in Havana

Guatemalan ex-dictator denies being 'genocidal'

Google – AFP,  9 May 2013

Jose Efrain Rios Montt is seen during his trial in Guatemala City on May 9, 

2013 (AFP, Johan Ordonez)

GUATEMALA CITY — Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt testified for the first time at his genocide trial Thursday, denying charges he ordered the massacre of indigenous people during his 1982-1983 regime.

"I declare myself innocent," the 86-year-old told the court after asking to take the stand in the final arguments of his landmark trial.

"I never had the intention, the aim to destroy any national ethnic group," he said. "I am not genocidal."

Rio Montt denied the prosecution's charge that he authorized military plans to exterminate the Ixil Maya population.

"I never authorized, I never signed, I never ordered attacks against a race, an ethnic group or a religion. I never did!" the retired general thundered.

The former dictator, taking sips of water during his 50-minute testimony, accused left-wing rebels of committing human rights violations against civilians.

Prosecutors have requested a 75-year prison term against Rios Montt and his former military intelligence chief, Jose Rodriguez, over the massacre if 1,771 Ixil Mayas during the country's civil war.

The massacre was one of the darkest chapters in the 36-year conflict, which pitted leftist guerrillas against government forces until 1996, leaving some 200,000 dead or "disappeared," according to the United Nations.

Related Article:

Guatemala's Rios Montt found guilty of genocide

HMRC in offshore tax evasion crackdown after receiving fresh data

Biggest tranche of information ever received by HMRC contains 400GB of information on offshore tax evasion

guardian.co.uk, Press Association,  Thursday 9 May 2013

The Cook Islands, a dream holiday destination for some, a tax haven for
others. Photograph: Alamy

A fresh crackdown on offshore tax evasion has been launched after HM Revenue and Customs said it had received data showing extensive use of schemes to hide assets.

HMRC is working with the United States and Australia to analyse 400GB of data showing the use of tax evasion schemes via companies and trusts in territories around the world including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands.

It is understood to be the biggest tranche of information ever received by HMRC about offshore tax evasion and has so far identified more than 100 people who are benefiting from these tax evasion schemes, with a number of individuals already being investigated.

HMRC has also identified more than 200 UK accountants, lawyers and other professional advisers who advise on setting up these structures who will also be scrutinised.

It is calling on anyone using offshore tax schemes to seek advice to ensure they are not breaking the law, which can result in criminal prosecution, hefty fines and possible naming and shaming.

The chancellor, George Osborne, said: "The message is simple: if you evade tax, we're coming after you.

"The government has invested hundreds of millions of pounds to fund the fight against tax evasion, both at home and abroad. This data is another weapon in HMRC's arsenal."

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants said while it welcomed moves to clamp down on tax evasion, "we should never lose sight of the fact that it is a small number of people who are evading tax in these markets".

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at ACCA, said: "The majority of accountants, lawyers and other professional advisers, as well as their clients, are not breaking any laws in these locations.

"There is a large gulf between what amounts to tax avoidance, which is within the law, and tax evasion, which is illegal."

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