Around the Americas

Around the Americas

Raúl Salinas released from prison

Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas’s older brother Raúl was released from jail last week after an appeals court overturned his murder conspiracy conviction in the assassination of José Francisco Ruiz Massieu. The latter was the head of Mexico’s then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) when he was killed in 1994. After many decades in power the PRI lost the presidency to the conservative National Action Party’s (PAN’s) Vicente Fox, who is constitutionally unable to run for another term. The Massieu affair was one of the things that led to Fox’s victory over the PRI.

OAS unable to resolve Nicaragua situation

Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza was unable to resolve Nicaragua’s political troubles on his recent visit. Nicaragua is locked in a political tug of war between an alliance of the leftist Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) and disgraced former President Arnoldo Alemán’s Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) pulling power towards the congress, and President Bolaños’s faction trying to maintain and extend the executive branch’s prerogatives. The FSLN and PLC, never the best of friends, have been threatening to impeach Bolaños.

Protests bring Bolivia new president

Several weeks of protests in Bolivia have ended with the swearing in of new President Eduardo Rodríguez. National elections are expected to follow in the near future.

Lula’s cabinet chief quits

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's cabinet chief, José Dirceu, quit his post June 16 amid allegations that Brazilian congressmen had been bribed for their votes on certain issues by the executive office.

Genocide charges for Echeverría

Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that former President Luis Echeverría can be prosecuted for genocide in relation to the Corpus Christi massacre of student protesters in Mexico City in June of 1971. The octogenarian had sent an illegal paramilitary squad known as the Falcons to attack a march of some 10,000 university students, causing an officially acknowledged death toll of 25 but by most acounts at least 50 deaths. In the ensuing years of Echeverría’s term in office Mexican security forces and their paramilitary auxiliaries killed some 3,000 leftist activists

Argentina’s Dirty War amnesty revoked

Argentina’s Supreme Court has struck down the amnesties given to officials of the former military dictatorship during the 80s after armed forces were forced from power in the wake of the brief and disastrous war against the United Kingdom over a group of South Atlantic islands that the Argentines call the Malvinas and the British the Falklands. Hundreds of people may soon face charges of torture, murder and kidnapping.

Pinochet’s intelligence files found

In Colonia Dignidad, Chile, a large stash of weapons and intelligence files has been unearthed. The weapons and documents are leftovers from the wave of repression that followed the September 11, 1973 coup. Colonia Dignidad was founded by a former Nazi medic named Paul Schaefer who later became a fundamentalist preacher.

400 Colombian paramilitary fighters demobilize

Some 400 right-wing paramilitaries from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) have laid down their weapons to facilitate “peace talks.” The announcment shortly followed the capture of Freddy Castillo Carrillo, a leader of the AUC. By and large the AUC had for many years worked in conjunction with government forces against the leftist guerrillas, but the string of massacres they carried out has become an embarrassment to the Bogota authorities. There are no peace talks with the guerrillas, and the issues at stake in the talks with the AUC are whether some of their leaders will be extradited to the United States to face drug charges and whether the paramilitary members will be allowed to keep the land and other valuables they took during the fighting.

Stem cell study in Barbados

The Barbados Advocate reports that a group of heart patients have been “identified to take part in a study determining the effectiveness of stem cell transplants.” 20 patients will be part of the experiment held by the Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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