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Around the Americas

compiled by Joel Inwood

The BBC reports that the workers of Venezuela’s state owned oil company, PDVSA, will be carrying out military exercises in preparation for a hypothetical “asymmetric” confrontation next Thursday. They quote Venezuelan General Raúl Baduel as saying that 4,500 troupes will also participate.

Former Mexico City Mayor Oscar Espinosa Villarreal was sentenced to seven and one-half years in prison for the embezzlement of millions of dollars during his time in office. Espinosa was in power from 1994 to 1997.

The Argentine rock band Callejeros were charged for manslaughter for their alleged responsibility in the fire at a concert in Buenos Aires that killed more than 190 people five months ago. Each member will pay fines of over three million dollars for their roles as co-organizers.

Amnesty International has now joined in the call for Japan to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. He fled Peru in November of 2000 amid a corruption scandal, and is being charged for corruption and crimes against humanity for his alleged responsibility for paramilitary murders of 25 people in 1990 and 1992.

Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños has ended his call for a state of emergency for to rising energy costs. Bolaños did not have sufficient support in the legislature for the measure which would have limited the right to protest to 180 days and suspended parts of the constitution.

The Trinidad & Tobago Express reports that a Rastafarian inmate, who had his dreadlocks forcibly cut, was fed meat and was beaten by police has been granted an appeal. Damian Belfonte, Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma declared, had his “constitutional right to freedom of conscience and religious beliefs and observance […] infringed [upon] by agents of the State,” the Express reports.

The Tobago News reports that environmentalists are confronting MTV’s Gauntlet program, which is planning to film on Turtle Beach during the turtle nesting season. MTV spokesperson Simon Baptiste said that they were unaware of the situation and wanted to see it resolved, the News reports.

Some Jamaican police officers repeatedly inform criminals prior to police raids, supply them with bullets and help enlist drug mules to travel out of the country, said Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas during an address at a police convention in Montego Bay. He added, “it’s not just [lower ranking officers]; it goes all the way up.”

Protests continue to paralyze Bolivia as Catholic leaders try to moderate a dialogue between protesters and the government. Members of the Bolivian left, the indigenous movement and coca growers are closing off streets and highways all over Bolivia in order to force a nationalization of Bolivia’s natural gas resources.

Fidel Castro is calling for the creation of a permanent tribunal against terrorism in Latin America. He made the proposal at a conference for leaders of the left Friday, June 4, in Havana, Cuba. He also asked the Organization of American States to support the extradition of Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Venezuela for his role in a 1976 Cuban Airlines bombing that killed all 73 passengers.

Costa Rica’s La Nacion reports that eight people are being investigated for selling, among other things, Panamanian lottery tickets. If convicted they face up to six years in prison, according to the article.

The Buena Vista Social Club, perhaps Cuba’s most world renowned band, is the subject of a dispute which is bringing a British judge across the Atlantic to the island. The US-based corporation Peer International claims its rights to many Buena Vista songs, dating back over 30 years, are being infringed by the Cuban Government’s Editora Musical de Cuba.

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