Argentina's ex-dictators in court over baby kidnappings

RNW, 28 February 2011

Two former Argentine dictators appeared in court Monday for the first time to face charges over the kidnapping of some 500 babies decades ago, seized from their mothers in secret maternity units minutes after birth.

Some 80 people are expected to testify about how babies were taken from political opponents and others, in a systematic plan ordered by the highest levels of Argentina's brutal military dictatorship from 1976-1983.

Jorge Videla (!976-1981)

Former rulers Jorge Videla, who headed a military junta from 1976 to 1981, and the last dictator of the military regime, Reynaldo Bignone (1982-1983), will appear before the court alongside six other former military leaders for the first hearing in a trial expected to last until the end of the year.

Outside the court steps, protesters from the rights group HIJOS (children) waved flags and chanted for justice on behalf of the detained and disappeared.

"We were the regime's war spoils," said 33-year-old Leonardo Fossati, who will be testifying at the trial.

His parents, both disappeared, were both militants in the Union of High School Students of La Plata and the Peronist Youth at the time of their abduction in 1977, when his mother was pregnant.

"I was born at a police station. A family of good faith adopted me," Fossati told AFP, saying he was thankful that a rights group had helped him find his true family and identity.

Reynaldo Bignone (1982-1983)

Women who were dissidents or otherwise found themselves in the junta's wrath were interned at wards in the heart of torture centers, including the emblematic Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics (ESMA).

The women were kept alive during their pregnancies, only to be summarily killed after giving birth, often dropped alive from military planes into the sea.

Their babies were handed to a military official or an officer's relative.

About 500 babies were stolen during the dictatorship, according to the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization which has so far been able to track down and identify 102 of them.

Several of those who discovered their true identity have become politicians or human rights activists.

Victoria Donda, 34, published a book last year on her horrific and complex experience as a "stolen child of the Argentine dictatorship."

The daughter of "Cori" (Hilda Perez) and "Cabo" (Jose Donda), two guerrilla fighters killed at ESMA, Victoria was raised by Juan Antonio Azic.

Azic is among the seven accused who will appear before a judge on Monday.

In a tragic twist, her birth uncle Adolfo Donda, also a former navy officer, is accused of having ordered the kidnapping and killing of his own brother and sister-in-law.

He even snatched Victoria's order sister, Daniela.

The eight accused military officers are accused of being responsible for 34 cases of kidnapping and falsifying children's identities.

"We have waited 30 years to get justice and see them in jail," said Chela Fontana, whose daughter Liliana, was kidnapped by a commando when she was two months pregnant.

Videla, 83, was sentenced to solitary confinement for life during a 1985 trial against the junta, only to receive amnesty five years later from ex-president Carlos Menem.

The amnesties were annulled during the 2003-2007 presidency of late former leader Nestor Kirchner, paving the way for the latest trials.

Bignone, 83, was appointed president during the 1982 Falklands War against Britain. He handed the reins of power over to Social Democrat Raul Alfonsin when Argentina returned to democracy.

About 5,000 people were detained and tortured at ESMA. Barely a hundred of them survived.

In all, some 30,000 people were killed under the dictatorship, according to rights groups.

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Puno: Large crack opens in the earth in southern Peru

LivinginPeru.com, Feb. 25, 2011

The sudden appearance early in the morning of an enormous crack, measuring 100 meters wide and three kilometers long, caused confusion among residents of the Huacullani district in the Chucuito province, department of Puno.

The mysterious crack measures 100 meters wide
and three kilometers long. (Photo: El Comercio)

The exact cause of the crack in the earth still unknown. Peru’s geophysical institute ruled out the occurrence of an earthquake in the region, but what is clear is that the ground opened up and large blocks of earth can be observed scattered throughout the area.

The event, recorded Wednesday morning, caused the collapse of one house located in the rural community of Llorohoco. Four people managed to escape, but the youngest in the family, five-year-old Jean Carlos Vilcanqui Acero, is missing.

Geological engineers from the regional committee for civil defense have arrived in the area to investigate the phenomenon and determine its causes, said Javier Pampamallco, Puno’s civil defense chief.

Panama arrests Bolivia ex-drugs police chief Sanabria

BBC News, 26 February 2011

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A former commander of Bolivia's anti-narcotics police force has been arrested in Panama on charges of drugs trafficking, Bolivian authorities say.

Bolivia is the world's third largest producer of
coca - the raw material for cocaine

Gen Rene Sanabria was immediately transferred to the US to face trial.

Bolivia has arrested three other senior police officers suspected of helping him smuggle cocaine to the US.

Gen Sanabria was head of Bolivia's anti-drug agency until 2009, and was still working as an intelligence adviser to the government.

Bolivian Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti said Gen Sanabria was suspected of travelling to Panama to organise further shipments of cocaine to the US, after allegedly despatching 144kg (317lbs) of the drug last November.

He said Bolivia expected to receive details of the charges against him from the US on Monday, and did not rule out asking for his extradition.

Gen Sanabria was arrested on arrival in Panama on Thursday, but this was not made public by the Panamanian or US authorities.

Failed obligations

Correspondents say the arrest is an embarrassment for the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales, which has been defending itself from US allegations that it is not doing enough to stop the production and export of cocaine.

In 2008 President Evo Morales expelled the US Drug Enforcement Agency from Bolivia, accusing it of supporting opposition movements.

Along with Venezuela and Burma, Bolivia is on a US list of countries that are failing to meet their obligations under international counter narcotics agreements.

After Peru and Colombia, Bolivia is the world's third largest producer of coca - the raw material for cocaine.

President Morales is himself a former coca grower, and has defended the use of the leaf for traditional medicinal purposes, while insisting his government is doing all it can to stop illegal cocaine production.

Brazil judge blocks Amazon Belo Monte dam

BBC News, 26 February 2011

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A Brazilian judge has blocked plans to build a huge hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest because of environmental concerns.

The ruling follows protests by local indigenous groups

Federal judge Ronaldo Desterro said environmental requirements to build the Belo Monte dam had not been met.

He also barred the national development bank, BNDES, from funding the project.

The dam is a cornerstone of President Dilma Rousseff's plans to upgrade Brazil's energy infrastructure.

But it has faced protests and challenges from environmentalists and local indigenous groups who say it will harm the world's largest tropical rainforest and displace tens of thousands of people.

Judge Desterro said the Brazilian environmental agency, Ibama, had approved the project without ensuring that 29 environmental conditions had been met.

In particular, he said concerns that the dam would disrupt the flow of the Xingu river - one of the Amazon's main tributaries - had not been met.

His ruling is the latest stage in a long legal battle over Belo Monte. Previous injunctions blocking construction have been overturned.

The government says the Belo Monte dam is crucial for development and will create jobs, as well as provide electricity to 23 million homes.

The 11,000-megawatt dam would be the biggest in the world after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay.

It has long been a source of controversy, with bidding halted three times before the state-owned Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco was awarded the contract last year.

Celebrities such as the singer Sting and film director James Cameron have joined environmentalists in their campaign against the project.

They say the 6km (3.7 miles) dam will threaten the survival of a number of indigenous groups and could make some 50,000 people homeless, as 500 sq km (190 sq miles) of land would be flooded.

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Peru moves to shut down illegal gold miners in Amazon

BBC News, By Dan Collyns, Lima, 20 February 2011

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Peru has sent the security forces to destroy river dredgers used by illegal gold miners in the country's south-eastern Amazon region of Madre de Dios.

The Peruvian military sank or set on fire seven
 of the miners' river dredgers

Nearly 1,000 troops and police officers took part in the operation to destroy the miners' main tools.

Seven of the boats which suck up silt from the riverbed were sunk or burnt.

Officials say the mining produces up to 18 tons of gold a year and causes immense destruction to one of the most biodiverse places on earth.

The operation was an important first blow against illegal gold mining in Peru.

On a good day, the river dredgers can find almost $30,000 (£18,000) worth of gold, yet the miners pay nothing to the state.

But the true impact of Peru's Amazon gold mining goes beyond hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.

Poisoned food chain

For every gram of gold, up to three times more mercury is used to extract it.

It is estimated that annually more than 40 tons of the toxic metal are absorbed into the air and rivers of Madre de Dios, poisoning the food chain.

Fish in the area contain three times more mercury than is safely permitted by the World Health Organization.

Sky-high gold prices have enticed migrants from Peru's poor highlands into the region to mine for the precious metal.

They are turning huge swathes of rainforest into desert.

The illicit cash and lawlessness also create social problems.

Child prostitution, for instance, as well as indentured labour, drug-trafficking and money laundering.

Environmentalists blame the Peruvian state for years of inertia in combating illegal mining in the region.

That may now be changing as the authorities say they plan to destroy hundreds more illegal mining operations.

Motor oil leak leaves thousands without drinking water in Brazil

Antara News, Sun, February 20 2011

Rio De Janeiro, Feb 20 (ANTARA News/RIA Novosti-OANA) - About 300,000 residents of Cascavel in Brazil`s western Parana state were left without drinking water when engine oil from an overturned tank truck polluted a local river, Brazilian media said on Sunday.

More than 5 metric tons of oil products leaked to the road and then to the river via drainage systems.

The local environmental authority IAP estimated environmental damage as "significant."

Editor: Ruslan

Cuba sets free defiant dissident journalist Hernandez

BC News, 19 February 2011

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The Cuban government has freed a jailed dissident who refused to go into exile in Spain as a condition for release.

Ivan Hernandez was freed on Friday

Ivan Hernandez, a journalist who was one of 75 opponents of the government arrested in 2003, was released along with six other prisoners.

He is among a group of dissidents whose freedom was brokered by the Roman Catholic Church, and most of whom were flown to Spain upon release.

He said he meant to continue working as an independent journalist.

"A major from the interior ministry told me that since I was being released from jail, that I should stay quiet at my home," he told AFP news agency by telephone from his home in Matanzas, 100km (62 miles) east of the capital Havana.

"But I told him that I was going to keep writing and working as an independent journalist just like before they convicted me."

Church deal

Mr Hernandez, 39, was jailed for 25 years while working for the dissident news agency Patria (Fatherland).

The deal brokered by the Church last year was meant to see the release of 52 dissidents.

Forty of these were released and accepted exile in Spain, while the other 12 refused to leave Cuba.

Mr Hernandez is among six of the latter who have been released.

Of the 75 people arrested in 2003, six remain in custody.

Speaking to the Associated Press after his release on Friday, Mr Hernandez said he was in good health, though feeling stress, and he thanked the Church for its help.

"I have faith that this process will continue until all are freed," he added, referring to those dissidents still in prison.

There was no immediate comment from the Cuban government, which regards dissidents as criminals disloyal to the communist state.

Panama clashes: Guaymi angry over copper mining law

BBC News, 19 February 2011

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Police in Panama have clashed with dozens of indigenous protesters trying to prevent copper mining on their ancestral lands.

Indigenous Panamanians blocked a major road
with their protest

Members of the Guaymi indigenous group occupied a bridge on a major highway on the outskirts of Panama City.

Clashes erupted when police tried to move the protesters to clear the way for traffic.

Lawmakers last week approved a law which opens up the western Ngobe-Bugle reservation to foreign mining projects.

Police say demonstrators, some of whom were armed with spears, threw stones at them when they tried to clear the section of the Pan-American highway.

Indigenous leaders complained that police had used tear gas against women and children.

The Guaymi say the new law would spoil pristine rainforest areas and force their communities to relocate.

The government has already opened for tenders a copper deposit in Cerro Colorado, in Ngobe-Bugle territory.

But President Ricardo Martinelli insisted that "no mining concession or exploitation will be made in a district in any area" of indigenous lands.

On Tuesday, riot police clashed with students who were also protesting against the changes.

Rio de Janeiro appoints first female police chief

Martha Mesquita da Rocha sworn in after 30 police officers arrested in corruption crackdown

guardian.co.uk, Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro,  Thursday 17 February 2011 

Former Rio de Janeiro police chief Allan Turnowski is accused
of receiving bribes. Picture: Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Rio de Janeiro has appointed its first female police chief after revelations about police collusion with drug gangs and the mafia triggered what has been described as one of the worst security crises in the city's history.

Martha Mesquita da Rocha, 51, was sworn in on Tuesday, five days after dozens of police officers were arrested as part of an unprecedented crackdown on corruption.

"Dr Martha Rocha will carry out her mission with the sweetness and bravery of a woman, because when a woman needs to be, she can be braver than a man," said Rio's governor, Sérgio Cabral.

The scandal began on Friday when hundreds of federal police operatives launched Operation Guillotine, a dawn assault on allegedly corrupt officers. So far 38 people including 30 police officers have been arrested.

Among those currently behind bars is Carlos Oliveira, until recently one of the city's highest ranking officers, and Leonardo da Silva Torres, a former member of Rio's drug squad famed for wearing combat gear and smoking cigars duration operations.

Oliveira is accused of links to paramilitary vigilantes and drug traffickers, while Torres, who featured in the 2009 Channel 4 documentary Dancing with the Devil, allegedly sold weapons and information to two of the city's most notorious drug lords.

In one scene Torres locates a stockpile of drugs and weapons following a shoot out in the Jacarezinho shantytown. "I won't take it home or sell it but the pleasure is getting this off them," he says, eyeing the stash of hand grenades, ammunition and about a tonne of marijuana. "This only happens with true cops."

Oliveira and Torres have not commented on the charges.

Rocha, who joined the force in 1983, replaces Allan Turnowski, who was toppled on Monday and is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes every month. Turnowski has described the claims as "a joke".

In a 2009 interview the outgoing chief appeared to predict his female successor.

"Maybe I'll be the last ever male police chief. Who knows?" Turnowski said at a police event in Rio.

With new revelations about police links to organised crime emerging every day, Rocha has promised a clean-up. Most of Rio's senior officers have been replaced.

In an interview with O Globo she said she wanted her officers to be "polite, clean-shaven, good-humoured and kind".

"I will be a severe mother. I will punish when necessary and distribute hugs when they are deserved," Rocha told the newspaper, which described her as a fan of Issey Miyake perfume, high heels and cooking.

Rocha told local TV she did not expect "resistance or rejection" because she was a woman and said the recent election of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, showed attitudes were changing.

"I think that maybe five years ago nobody would have expected a female president… [or] a female police chief. Soon this will stop being a shock, it will no longer be different."

Shell, Brazil's Cosan form $12 billion ethanol unit

Google / AFP

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Anglo-Dutch energy titan Shell and Brazilian sugar-production group Cosan said Monday they were forming a joint ethanol fuel venture with an estimated market value of $12 billion.

A peasant cuts sugar cane with his machete in the
Usina Bonfim farm plantation in Guariba

The new entity, to be called Raizen, would be one of the biggest players in the sector worldwide, employing around 40,000 people and producing over 2.2 billion liters (580 million gallons) of ethanol per year to Brazilian and international markets, the two companies said in a statement.

Raizen should be launched in the first half of this year, they said.

"Due to the size of its operations, Raizen will help sugarcane ethanol, a sustainable, clean and renewable source of energy, to consolidate itself worldwide and strengthen Brazil's position in the international biofuels trading business," said the venture's chief executive, Vasco Dias.

Raizen will have 23 mills able to crush 62 million tonnes of sugarcane per year to produce the ethanol. The mills will also output four million tonnes of sugar per year.

The venture will distribute some of the product in 4,500 service stations across Brazil, and through participation in distribution depots for aviation fuel in 54 airports.

The statement said the new company would have approximately $1.6 billion in cash inflow.

"We want to be even bigger," Dias said. "We want to be recognized globally for our excellence in the development, production and marketing of sustainable energy."

The European Commission gave the green light last month to form the new joint venture.

Brazil is the second-biggest producer of ethanol in the world, after the United States, and the biggest exporter of the biofuel.

It sustains a large domestic market using ethanol through the sales of cars whose engines can take either gasoline, ethanol or a mix of the two.

Colombia drugs: Police hold 'gang's financial brains'

BBC News, 14 February 2011

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Police in Colombia say they have captured a man they believe to be the financial brains behind one of the country's main drug-trafficking rings.

Police arrested Fredy Ricardo Santos Ramirez in central Colombia.

He is accused of extorting money from the region's businessmen to pay off the hundreds of men working for a drug gang known as ERPAC.

ERPAC is believed to control much of the drug-trafficking in eastern Colombia.

'New enemy'

Mr Santos Ramirez was arrested in a residential neighbourhood of the central city of Villavicencio, from where police say he ran the logistics and finances of the Popular Revolutionary Anti-terrorist Army of Colombia, or ERPAC.

Colombian security forces say ERPAC is one of the country's three largest criminal gangs, which grow, transport and export much of Colombia's coca crop.

The gang's leader, alias "the knife", died in a clash with security forces two months ago.

Last month, President Juan Manuel Santos said criminal gangs had become Colombia's "new enemy" and promised to dedicate all necessary resources to the fight against them.

Secret life of the Amazon Indians: Incredible images show near-extinct Awá tribe at work and play

Daily Mail, By OLIVER PICKUP, 14th February 2011

Heads garlanded in feathers and bands of plumes laced around their triceps, Amazon Indians demonstrate their skills with bows and arrows.

The men are some of the last remaining members of the Awá tribe, a nomadic group who live deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle.

But despite desperate attempts to preserve their traditional way of life, the group are fighting a losing battle against the incursions of illegal loggers.

Tribal gathering: The Awá of Tiracambu community, which borders the Carajás
 railway. Since being established 25 years ago, the route has brought thousands
of illegal loggers to the area

Smiling: But for how long? Smiling: An Awa boy garlanded with flowers (left) while
 Tatkwarentxia poses with his pet monkey

What to hunt? With the trees being chopped down illegally the Awá main sources
of food - fruit and animals - are in increasingly short supply

There are now only between 60 and 100 members of the 360-strong tribe who have been uncontacted.

And if they are influenced by outsiders - ie the loggers and other settlers - there is a high likelihood that they will contract diseases, due to their delicate immune systems, and the Awá will become extinct.

More...

• The lost tribe staring extinction in the face: Extraordinary new pictures of life in the depths of the Amazon jungle

The tribe depend on the forest to survive, but, as they are under threat, they are increasingly having to conceal themselves in hidden pockets of woodland.

Some Awá have stopped hunting altogether as they feel threatened by the illegal loggers working nearby.

Sharp shooters; Awá men demonstrate their skills with bows and arrows

An Awá man Pire’i Ma’a told British charity Survival International: ‘The loggers are destroying all the land. This is Indian land. I am angry, very angry with the loggers... extremely angry.

'There is no game for me to hunt, and my children are hungry.’

Newly released figures show that the Awá suffered more deforestation than any other indigenous territory in the Amazon in 2009.

The research, undertaken by Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department FUNAI, suggests that 31 per cent of the forest in the Awá territory has been illegally cut down.

Campaigners have urged the country's government to honour a number of promises to help them.

But there has been a growing influx of loggers and little has been done to remove them.

Forest home: young Awa in their forest home. The child at the front wears a
simple tribal necklace

Survival: Of the 360-strong tribe between only 60 and 100 have not yet
been contacted

Researchers from Survival International believe that the authorites are aware of their identites.

The influx of loggers and settlers was a by-product of the Great Carajás Programme, the development of one of the biggest iron ore fields in the world.

A railway was built around 25 years ago to link the vast mine to the outside world, putting huge pressure on the Awá and their forest.

Animals, fruit, berries and other foodstuff are no longer easily available to indigenous people.

The Awá lives in three of the five indigenous areas which suffered most deforestation in 2009 – the latest year for which statistics are available.

Natural harvest: A young Awá girl feasts on papaya

Devastation: A young member of the tribe surveys the forest which has been
illegally destroyed by settlers.

Satellite images show that deforestation in the area has hugely increased over the past two decades and is now occurring close to where uncontacted Indians have been sighted.

A Brazilian anthropologist has stated the tribe faces genocide, and a FUNAI official declared on Globo TV that it will become extinct if the authorities do not take urgent action.


Brazilian law requires that the Awá land be protected for the Indians

Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry, said today: ‘We are watching a tragedy unfold before our eyes – and the cause of it is quite simply a total failure of Brazil’s authorities to uphold the law and protect the Awá territory.’

The charity is now urging people to contact the Brazilian president directly, by clicking on their 'act now' tab on the website, http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/awa.

Deforestation: The tribe, of which there are about 360, rely on the Amazon forest,
 but it is being chopped away by the loggers and other settlers

Cut down: This graphic shows how much of the part of the Amazon which
contains the Awá tribe has been chopped down since 1996

Deforestation: The opening of the Carajás mine and railway in 1985 signalled the
start of migration to the Awá territories

Amazon pollution: US oil firm Chevron fined in Ecuador

BBC News, 14 February 2011

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US oil firm Chevron has been fined for polluting rivers and rainforest areas in Ecuador.

Maria Eugenia Briceno lives in the area affected
by the pollution

The fine, reported to be $8bn (£5bn), follows a legal battle lasting years. Chevron said it would appeal.

The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic materials into unlined pits and Amazon rivers.

Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased.

The lawsuit against Chevron was brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans.

The plaintiffs said the company's activities had destroyed large areas of rainforest and also led to an increased risk of cancer among the local population.

The trial began in 2003 after almost a decade of legal battles in the US ended with a US appeals court ruling that the dispute should be heard in Ecuador.

Environmentalists hope the case the case will set a precedent forcing companies operating in the developing world to comply with the same anti-pollution standards as in the industrialised nations.

'Product of fraud'

Ecuadorian Indian groups said Texaco - which merged with Chevron in 2001 - dumped more than 18bn gallons of toxic materials into the unlined pits and rivers between 1972 and 1992.

Protesters said the company had destroyed their livelihood. Crops were damaged, farm animals killed and cancer increased among the local population, they said.

eA Chevron statement said the firm would appeal, and called the ruling "illegitimate and unenforceable".

The corporation has long contended that the court-appointed expert in the case was unduly influenced by the plaintiffs.

Its statement described the ruling as "the product of fraud (and) contrary to the legitimate scientific evidence".

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