Some 200 Paraguayan poor farmers have reoccupied land where six police officers and 11 farmworkers were killed last year in a violent eviction that led to the ouster of President Fernando Lugo. …read more
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Tag Archives: Paraguay
Conservatives likely to retake power in Paraguay
Paraguay is poised to elect as its new president a conservative candidate from the party that backed strongman Alfredo Stroessner during 35 years of iron rule, returning the executive branch to the wealthy interests that have traditionally dominated this poor South American nation despite the election of a leftist ex-bishop in 2008.
Sunday’s vote is also an important milestone in Paraguay‘s attempt to regain the international acceptance it lost when neighboring nations objected to the fast-track removal of President Fernando Lugo. The expedited impeachment of Lugo last year conformed to Paraguay‘s constitution but was criticized by its neighbors as an “institutional coup” that threatened democracies around the region.
Regional blocs such as Mercosur suspended Paraguay‘s membership following Lugo’s ouster, but all signs indicate that Paraguay‘s neighbors will re-engage the country after the election to replace Federico Franco, who served out Lugo’s term and is not eligible to seek a new one.
Most polls indicate that tobacco magnate and soccer executive Horacio Cartes of the Colorado Party, which held power for 61 years before losing to Lugo at the polls, will win handily over his chief rival, Sen. Efrain Alegre of Franco’s Liberal Party.
A handful of candidates trail them, including Anibal Carrillo of the leftist Guasu Front coalition led by Lugo, who is seeking to return to politics as a senator.
A presidential candidate can be declared winner with a plurality, and there is no runoff.
Some likened the vote to the 2009 presidential election in Honduras that gave other nations reason to re-embrace the Central American country five months after President Manuel Zelaya was grabbed by soldiers while still in his pajamas and flown to Costa Rica.
“The election in Honduras ultimately was important,” said Gregory Weeks, a political scientist specializing in Latin America at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “It was contested and there might have been controversy, but what it did was it got the country sufficiently past the crisis to allow it to be accepted by all the rest of the region again.”
Whoever wins in Paraguay will have to deal with problems that have been endemic for decades in this landlocked nation of about 6.2 million people, most notably the yawning gulf between the haves and have-nots.
Paraguay is South America’s No. 3 producer of soy,
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Options slim for Venezuelan opposition after court blocks presidential election recount
Venezuela‘s opposition watched its options dwindle Wednesday after the head of the Supreme Court said there could be no recount of the razor-thin presidential election victory by Hugo Chavez‘s heir, leaving many government foes feeling the only chance at power is to wait for the ruling socialists to stumble.
Opposition activists and independent observers called the judge’s declaration blatant and legally unfounded favoritism from a purportedly independent body that is packed with confederates of President-elect Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s hand-picked successor.
The recount issue isn’t before the court, but its president, Luisa Morales, appeared on television at midday to declare that the opposition call for an examination of each and every paper vote receipt had “angered many Venezuelans.”
It was an unsubtle reminder that virtually every lever of power in Venezuela sits in the hands of a ruling party unafraid to use almost all means at its disposal to marginalize its opponents.
“In Venezuela the system is absolutely automatic, in such a way that manual recounts don’t exist,” Morales said.
Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles later told a TV interviewer that Morales should be disqualified from legal decision on petition that his campaign filed Wednesday for a recount.
A day earlier, Capriles canceled a march in the capital planned for Wednesday, saying the government planned to react with violence. That decision came after Maduro urged his own supporters to take to the streets Wednesday.
Maduro hectored the opposition during a 45-minute live appearance on state television Wednesday, calling his opponents “fascists” plotting to overthrow the government.
“Superman could not win an election here,” Diego Arria, a former U.N. ambassador and conservative member of the opposition coalition, said resignedly.
“We’re left with the option of calling the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, but that won’t have any impact here,” Arria told The Associated Press. “If the population stands down, we lose.”
The National Electoral Council on Monday ratified Maduro as the winner of the previous day’s vote with 50.8 percent to Capriles’ 49 percent.
The United States, meanwhile, appeared to soften its insistence on a recount as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left open the possibility of recognizing Maduro as president even the votes aren’t reviewed.
The Obama administration has stood almost alone, along with Paraguay and Panama, in insisting on a recount as other governments congratulated Maduro, who is scheduled to be formally sworn in Friday.
Maduro’s government said 15 countries had confirmed they were sending high-level delegations, among them Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Haiti, Uruguay and Argentina.
Kerry said there was no plan to send a U.S. diplomat but when asked about whether the U.S. would recognize Maduro as legitimate, he said, “I can’t give you a yes-or-no answer on that.”
“If there are huge irregularities, we’re going to have serious questions about the viability of that government. But that evaluation has to be made, and I haven’t made it yet,” Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Maduro boomed angrily in a later TV appearance.
“Take your eyes off Venezuela, John Kerry! Get out
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Most of Europe reluctant to crack down on Hezbollah despite growing threat
A House hearing on Hezbollah as a global terrorist threat coupled with Thursday’s prison sentence of a Hezbollah member — the first in a European court — brings into sharp focus the rising danger of the Lebanese terror organization for the security of the U.S. and its allies.
The criminal court in Limassol, Cyprus, sentenced Hossam Taleb Yaacoub — a self-confessed Hezbollah operative — to four years in prison for plotting to kill Israeli tourists on the island. “There is no doubt these are serious crimes which could have potentially endangered Israeli citizens and targets in the republic,” the three-member judge panel said.
The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah — a major proxy of Iran‘s radical clerical rulers — has an extensive history of carrying out terror attacks on U.S. soldiers. In January 2007, Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq played a critical role in the murders of five U.S. soldiers in Iraq. In 1983, a year after its founding, Hezbollah executed a double suicide attack against U.S. and French military barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen and 58 French paratroopers.
And Hezbollah’s mushrooming presence in United States‘ backyard is cause for concern. Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told FoxNews.com, “With Hezbollah playing a central role in Iran‘s shadow war with the West, concerns over the group’s presence and capabilities in Latin America are well-placed. Hezbollah’s reach in the region extends beyond the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay — recent cases highlighted Hezbollah activities in Venezuela and Mexico, too.”
Levitt delivered testimony this month to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Proliferation and Trade, saying, “In early September 2012, Mexican authorities, in a joint operation conducted by migration and state police, arrested three men suspected of operating a Hezbollah cell in the Yucatan area and Central America.”
One of the suspects arrested was Rafic Mohammad Labboun Allaboun, a dual U.S.-Lebanese citizen, linked to a U.S.-based Hezbollah money laundering operation.
Roger F. Noriega, a former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and a former U.S. ambassador, said at the congressional hearing, “Hezbollah is not a lone wolf. In this hemisphere it counts on the political, diplomatic, material and logistical support of governments – principally Venezuela and Iran – that have little in common but their hostility to the United States.”
Last week in Jerusalem, President Obama called on countriesto outlaw Hezbollah. In a clear reference to the ongoing EU talks about banning Hezbollah, Obama said, “That’s why every country that values justice should call Hezbollah what it truly is: a terrorist organization.”
Only a handful of Western democracies — the U.S., the Netherlands, Canada — consider Hezbollah a full-blown terrorist organization. The United Kingdom has merely blacklisted Hezbollah’s military wing for targeting British soldiers for death in Iraq.
The EU has so far snubbed Obama administration counterterrorism officials, who have repeatedly urged the 27-member body to crack down on Hezbollah’s legal status in Europe. The results of Bulgaria’s investigation last month …read more
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Falkland Islanders vote with an eye on Argentina
Britain is hoping a referendum on the status of the Falkland Islands will push the United States and other neutral governments off the fence in its territorial dispute with Argentina over the remote South Atlantic archipelago.
Just 1,650 voters are registered to cast secret ballots Sunday and Monday, with election observers on hand from Canada, Mexico, the U.S., Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and New Zealand.
Islanders face a simple yes-or-no question: Should the territory keep its current status as a self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom?”
Islanders expect the answer to be overwhelmingly in favor of British governance and protection. They hope will put their own self-determination at the center of any debate about their future in the face of Argentine claims to the islands.
Charges sought against peasants in Paraguay deaths
The prosecutor says he has no physical evidence showing who killed six police officers during a bloody land dispute that prompted the downfall of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo. He says he didn’t even try to determine who killed 11 farmworkers who also died when the bullets started flying.
Even so, Jalil Rachid has said he’ll ask a judge on Thursday to formally charge 10 peasants who survived the fusillade with attempted homicide, and punish them with up to 25 years in prison. He’s also seeking lesser charges against four other people.
“It’s obvious that the farmworkers ambushed the police,” said Rachid, who spent six months investigating the clash.
Peasants and their supporters say the official investigation is a one-sided effort. But Paraguay‘s lack of institutional controls and the chaos of last June’s deadly standoff have made it difficult to get at the truth.
In the official version he presented to Judge Jose Benitez, Rachid said that farmworkers fired first after police came to conduct a census of the families occupying land controlled by a powerful Paraguayan politician, and that police officers fired back in self-defense. The arrested farmworkers deny firing any weapons, and insist that the police provoked the clash.
Farmworker advocates say Rachid is biased because his father was close friends with the politician, Colorado Party Sen. Blas Riquelme. Rachid has dismissed those accusations, saying his critics are trying to influence the April presidential election.
The shootout gave the Colorados and other Lugo opponents the political ammunition they needed to vote the sandal-wearing leftist out of office. They accused him, among other things, of “mismanaging” the occupation and giving peasants false hopes for land reform.
The most detailed version yet of what provoked the fusillade was described by one of the 40 fugitives from the clash, who fled into the forested hills of northern Paraguay. Speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear for his life, he told The Associated Press that he was standing just a few meters from the first men to fall.
Tensions were already boiling over on the 5,000-acre (2,000 hectare) ranch known as Marina Cue in Curuguaty, a district some 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of the capital, where Paraguay‘s forests have been bulldozed into vast fields of soy in mechanized operations that employ relatively few people but bring vast profits to landowners.
Paraguay mourns politician killed in copter crash
Authorities in Paraguay say they identified the body of presidential candidate Lino Oviedo through his fingerprints, laptop, driver’s license and revolver. Coroner Pablo Lemir says most of his body was scattered as far as 650 feet (200 meters) from the spot where the helicopter he was riding in exploded in a thunderstorm.
Prosecutor Federico Espinoza said expects to have the final result of a probe into the causes of the accident in another 90 days. The nose of the helicopter was driven more than 3 feet (1 meter) into the ground.
The 69-year-old retired general died Saturday night in his third run for president. He was mourned Wednesday by about a thousand followers who accompanied his coffin around Paraguay‘s capital, and will be buried on Thursday.
Paraguay presidential hopeful Oviedo dies in crash
A presidential candidate in Paraguay has died in a helicopter crash.
Spokesman Johnny Villalba of Paraguay‘s airport authority says Lino Cesar Oviedo was returning from a political rally Saturday night in northern Paraguay when the pilot encountered bad weather. Also killed in the crash were the pilot and Oviedo’s bodyguard.
Villalba said Sunday that the cause will be investigated by his agency.
Oviedo was 69, a retired general and former army chief who was running for president in April’s elections as leader of an opposition party, the National Union of Ethical Citizens. It’s the third largest party in Paraguay.
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Brazil and EI want to retake stalled negotiations
Brazil and the European Union have agreed to resume stalled free trade negotiations between the EU and South America’s Mercosur trade bloc.
The agreement was reached Thursday in Brasilia during a meeting between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.
The free trade negotiations were launched in 1999 but came to a standstill five years later when the two sides failed to reach an understanding on market access.
Mercosur demanded greater access to Europe‘s agricultural market and the EU wanted Mercosur to open its market to European manufactured products.
Barroso says the partners want “a comprehensive and balanced agreement.”
Mercosur is formed by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Ache Indians in Paraguay hold bow, arrow festival
An Ache Indian village in Paraguay‘s jungle has celebrated the anniversary of its founding and recognition that the tribe’s warriors are the best archers in the country by preparing dishes of armadillo and tapir, and with demonstrations of their bow-and-arrow prowess.
“We are the champions at shooting the bow and arrow; this is what the representatives of other aboriginal peoples say,” Ache teacher Sinforiano Chevugi told The Associated Press in Kuetuvy, a former plantation that about 45 Ache families occupied 12 years ago. In 2010, Paraguay‘s Congress gave them formal title to the land.
In 2011, for the country’s bicentennial, Paraguay held a national bow-and-arrow shooting contest that was won by the Ache team, a source of pride among the tribe’s members and a motive for the weekend celebration.
The Ache are hunter-gatherers whose population of roughly 1,200 is distributed in five villages in eastern Paraguay. Ache de Kuetuvy, the second-largest village, is located in virgin jungle in Canindeyu province.
The Ache’s Asiatic features and light eye color have drawn the interest of U.S. and European anthropologists.
Villagers celebrated the anniversary of their arrival in Kuetuvy by slaughtering a cow as well as collecting fruit, hunting wild animals and by cooking up dishes of tapir, armadillo and chicken feet. For dessert, a sweet dish was made from the juice of palm tree trunks.
They also celebrated the recent success of their exports to the United States of shade-grown, organic yerba mate, a drink brewed from the leaves of the rainforest holly tree.
Emiliano Mbejyvagi, president of the national federation of Ache communities, said the money earned from the exports will be invested in improving Kuetuvy.
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Amnesty calls for probe of police in land killings
Amnesty International is calling on Paraguay to investigate all those involved in a violent land clash, including police officers, joining the family members of farmers recently charged in some of the 17 deaths.
Six police officers and 11 farmers were killed in June when clashes broke out during the forced eviction of peasants occupying a disputed soy farm in Curuguaty, 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the capital Asuncion. Politicians opposed to then-President Fernando Lugo seized on the clash to oust him for “mismanaging” the land conflict.
On Sunday, prosecutor Jalil Rachid filed homicide charges against eight peasants, and charges ranging from land invasion to obstruction to being an accomplice against six others. No police were charged.
“It is shocking that no investigation is being conducted into the potential responsibility of the police,” Maria Jose Eva, a researcher at Amnesty International, said Monday in a statement from the human rights group. “According to reports, during the confrontation there were more than 300 officers, many of them with firearms, as opposed to only around 90 peasants.”
The Amnesty statement said eyewitnesses reported that some of the victims were shot dead after the confrontation ended.
Family members of the peasants charged also criticized prosecutors for not investigating police and for charging their loved ones with what they said was insufficient evidence.
“I have a son killed by the police and two others in jail,” Mariano Castro said in Guarani, the indigenous language spoken by most Paraguayans. “I’m offended and upset with prosecutor Rachid because he charged my sons Adalberto and Nestor and six others for murder when he doesn’t even know who shot the police agents.”
Rachid has said it’s still not clear who fired on the police officers and that weapons taken from the peasants did not give positive results in the ballistics tests. But he says his investigation has shown that the police fired in self-defense after being attacked.
Among those accused of complicity in attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and property invasion is Lucia Aguero, who joined a hunger strike earlier this year to protest being jailed without formal charges. She lasted 59 days, and nearly died before a judge said she and three others could return home under police custody until Sunday’s hearing.
The dispute that set up the deadly clash goes back decades. Peasants allege the land was stolen from the state by Sen. Blas Riquelme, a leader of the Colorado Party that supported dictator Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989.
Riquelme, who died of a stroke in September at age 82, took over the property in 1964, benefiting from a Stroessner law that granted free title to any adult male willing to farm fallow land.
Local farmers challenged Riquelme’s claim, but after eight years of legal battles, the peasants lost patience and invaded a portion of the 135-square-mile ranch in May.
A judge will determine before Dec. 30 whether he accepts or rejects the charges presented by Rachid.
Source: Fox World News