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28 DEAD IN BRAZIL DOUBLE ACCIDENT
The Miami Herald
Oct. 10, 2007
BRASILIA, Brazil --
A truck coming down a hill plowed into rescue workers and gawkers at the site of an earlier collision - a double accident that killed least 28 people and injured 90, police said Wednesday.
The first crash occurred when one truck tried to pass another on a curve and smashed into an oncoming bus with about 20 people aboard, said highway police spokesman Adrian Fiamoncini. Six people on the bus and the truck driver were killed.
"It was a serious accident but everything was under control," Fiamoncini said. But about 90 minutes later, "all of a sudden, for no reason another truck arrived and ran everybody over, firefighters, police, people who stopped at the scene," Fiamoncini said.
POLITICIAN: I DIDN'T CHEAT IN MARATHON
The Miami Herald
Oct. 10, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
A Mexican politician stripped of his first-place title in a marathon after apparently taking a shortcut said Wednesday that he never intended to complete the race and simply went to the finish line to collect his belongings.
Roberto Madrazo, who finished a distant third in Mexico's 2006 presidential election, was lampooned around the world after photographs and video footage showed him running across the finish line pumping his arms and grinning in the Sept. 30 Berlin marathon.
After a race photographer noted Madrazo finished the marathon wearing a jacket and long running tights and barely sweating, officials opened an investigation and eventually disqualified his age-55 category 1st place win.
COLOMBIANS PROTEST URIBE GOVERNMENT
The Miami Herald
Oct. 10, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
Police clashed with hundreds of protesters who blocked roads and burned trucks in Colombia on Wednesday in demonstrations called by unions, farmers and indigenous groups who accuse the government of ties to right-wing militias.
Picketers blocked traffic for hours on the Panamerican Highway in the southwestern state of Cauca, where at least 1,600 members of indigenous groups squared off against anti-riot police that came to clear the road, police said. Television images showed at least three trucks burning.
Cauca police chief Col. Luis Camacho said at least two police officers and three protesters were injured in the violence, and another eight demonstrators were arrested.
MEXICAN ARRESTED IN DISMEMBERMENT CASE
The Miami Herald
Oct. 11, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
An aspiring horror novelist was arrested after police discovered his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box, the city prosecutor's spokesman said Thursday.
Nearby they found the draft of a novel titled "Cannibalistic Instincts," said the official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
Jose Luis Calva told police he had boiled some of his girlfriend's flesh but that he hadn't eaten it, the spokesman said.
BRAZIL WON'T EXTRADITE LEBANESE BANKER
The Miami Herald
Oct. 12, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
Brazil's Supreme Court denied a Lebanese request to extradite a fugitive banker accused of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and wanted for questioning in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Victor Mauad, attorney for Rana Koleilat, said Friday his client is waiting for her passport to be returned and that she had been given eight days to leave the country once it is.
"She doesn't know where she will go yet, probably some country in Europe," Mauad said in a telephone interview, adding his client has both British and Lebanese citizenship. "She's looking for a safe place. She's worried for her life."
IN MEXICO, A FUGITIVE’S ARREST CAPTIVATES THE CAMERAS
The New York Times
October 12, 2007
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 11 — A woman who succeeds in a field dominated by men is always intriguing to the public, but when that field happens to be big-time cocaine trafficking, and the woman is graced with both charm and beauty, a criminal celebrity is born.
Ms. Ávila Beltrán, left, has a long list of romantic conquests, the police say, including the drug trafficker Ismael Zambada, right.
Ever since her arrest last month, Sandra Ávila Beltrán, better known as the Queen of the Pacific, has been getting the kind of press here that would have made Jesse James envious. Mexicans are closely following the case against her and the efforts to extradite her to United States, where she is wanted in Florida.
Prosecutors here say Ms. Ávila Beltrán, a shapely, raven-haired, 46-year-old with a taste for high fashion, has played an important role in forging a federation of drug traffickers in western Sinaloa State as well as creating an alliance between them and Colombian suppliers.
MEXICAN 'DIRTY WAR' CASE NEARS COURT
The Washington Post
October 13, 2007
MEXICO CITY -- Rosendo Radilla was the Renaissance man of Mexico's 1960s and '70s social justice movement.
He led rallies and built schools. He also composed and sang corridos, or ballads, crooning in a nasal, unpolished voice at community meetings and forums during troubled times in the state of Guerrero.
His followers heard him sing for the last time in 1974. One day in August of that year, witnesses say, soldiers arrested Radilla, then 60, and took him to a military prison without formally charging him. There, other witnesses say, he was tortured. After a month or so, he disappeared and has not been seen since.
21 KILLED IN COLOMBIA MINE COLLAPSE
The Miami Herald
Oct. 13, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia --
A landslide triggered by local residents digging for rumored deposits of gold in an abandoned mine killed at least 21 people and injured another 26 Saturday in southern Colombia, authorities said.
Seven of those injured were in serious condition, Cauca provincial Gov. Juan Jose Chaux said in a statement.
Chaux said the search for survivors at the mine, located near the town of Suarez, 220 miles southwest of Bogota, was suspended Saturday evening because of darkness and bad weather, which made the open pit mine unsafe.
It was unclear how many people were missing, but earlier police officer Jose Delgado had told The Associated Press that about 50 people may have been in the mine the time of the landslide. But he added there was no registry or official count of how many people entered the mine.
21 DIE IN COLOMBIA MINE
The New York Times
October 14, 2007
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Oct. 13 (AP) — A landslide caused by local residents digging for rumored deposits of gold killed at least 21 people and injured 26 on Saturday at an abandoned mine in southern Colombia, authorities said.
The provincial governor, Juan José Chaux, said a search for survivors at the mine, situated near the town of Suarez, 220 miles southwest of Bogotá, was suspended in the evening because of darkness and bad weather, which made the open-pit mine unsafe.
Images broadcast by RCN news showed the mine as a pit about 25 feet deep and 160 feet in diameter. Rescuers waded waist-deep through the mire, and heavy machinery also worked to remove the mud.
A VIOLENT POLICE UNIT, ON FILM AND IN RIO’S STREETS
The New York Times
October 14, 2007
RIO de JANEIRO, Oct. 13 — For Antônia Dalva de Souza, a new movie depicting the violent war between Rio’s drug gangs and an elite police military squad hit too close to home.
Her hillside house, with its flimsy hollow brick walls, was riddled by police bullets this year. A round scar on her upper arm came from a bullet fired in a recent police crackdown, she said. Another stray bullet killed her 5-year-old daughter, Joyce, in 1995, as she lay beside her in bed. She suspects the police fired the shot.
“They come in firing,” Ms. de Souza, 32, said. “My kids crawl under the bed when the shooting begins.”
Residents of the Vila Cruzeiro slum here, one of the more violent in Rio, say they have been under siege for the past month from the black-clad, beret-wearing State Police Special Operations Battalion, better known as BOPE by Brazilians. Battalion members ride in on heavy armored vehicles bearing the force’s symbol, a skull and crossed pistols, or on foot, moving with frightening, catlike speed and efficiency.
DINOSAUR SKELETON UNEARTHED IN ARGENTINA
The Miami Herald
Oct. 15, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species - a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found - has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.
Scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton's excavation.
"This is one of the biggest in the world and one of the most complete of these giants that exist," said Jorge Calvo, director of the paleontology center at the National University of Comahue, Argentina. He was lead author of a study on the dinosaur published in the peer-reviewed Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
COLOMBIA: A DEADLY PLACE FOR REPORTERS
OUR OPINION: PRESIDENTIAL WORDS CAN PUT JOURNALISTS AT RISK
Opinion
The Miami Herald
Oct. 15, 2007
Colombia is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists. Thirty-nine journalists have been killed there since 1992, the highest number in the Americas. For decades, drug dealers, insurgents and political operatives have used violence to silence the media. Recognizing this danger, the government provides protection to journalists at risk.
Forced to flee Colombia
This is why President Alvaro Uribe's recent comments about journalist Gonzalo Guillén strikes such a dissonant chord. The president's words have impact, and they can have devastating consequences. Last week on radio, Mr. Uribe accused Mr. Guillén, a correspondent for El Nuevo Herald, of slander. Later, Mr. Guillén received a flood of death threats and was forced to flee Colombia.
GUARD DIES WHEN 10 SHOOT THEIR WAY OUT OF HONDURAS PRISON
The Miami Herald
Oct. 15, 2007
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras --
(AP) -- Ten prisoners shot their way out of a Honduras prison, killing an unarmed guard and holding visitors at gunpoint before stealing three cars from the parking lot, officials said Monday.
One guard was killed and two others were injured in the escape Sunday in Yoro, on Honduras' northern coast.
''They were shouting and shooting everywhere,'' prison director Martin Perez told The Associated Press by phone. Killed was guard Oscar Osorio, 26, who was shot in the head.
''None of the guards were armed because it was Sunday, the day the prisoners have family and friends visit,'' Perez said. ``That is why they couldn't stop the fugitives.''
TORTURE CENTER TO BEAR WITNESS
The Washington Post
October 15, 2007
BUENOS AIRES -- The rubber tip of Victor Basterra's cane bounced from one photo to another, pointing out the faces that elicit the most vivid memories from his encounters with them in this same building more than 25 years ago.
Basterra was a prisoner here at the Navy Mechanics School, the largest and most notorious political detention center used by the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. The navy finally moved out at the end of last month, allowing workers to begin transforming the 40-acre campus into the country's first comprehensive human rights memorial recalling that era and its lingering consequences.
"This guy beat me," he said, pointing to one of the black-and-white head shots of ex-military officials displayed on a mural inside one of the buildings. "And this guy beat me a lot. That one there was the boss."
WOMEN HELP SAVE MEXICO'S CENOTES
The Christian Science Monitor
October 15, 2007
Yokdzonot, Mexico - The name of this town in the Mayan language means "above the cenote," but for years the cenote, or freshwater pool, in the middle of this tiny community of 500 operated as the neighborhood garbage dump.
And then a group of middle-aged women here, looking for more work in a town where most families merely subsist on crops they grow on small pots of land, decided to capitalize on the growing craze for swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving among the sinkholes that dot the tourist circuit throughout Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
The men called them foolish, and as the group of 25 cut through the jungle with machetes, the other women shook their heads. They hiked 20 meters down to the water's edge, dragging out glass bottles and plastic bags, one by one. They hiked up into the mountains to bring back flat stones to create foot paths, and cut down wood to create rails. The whole effort took more than a year.
BOLIVIAN EX-OFFICIAL SUED OVER '03 RIOT DEATHS
The Miami Herald
Oct. 16, 2007
A former Bolivian defense minister now living in Pinecrest is accused in a federal lawsuit of ''crimes against humanity'' in the deaths of 67 people, among them children, during bloody labor riots four years ago in Bolivia.
The former official, Carlos Sánchez-Berzaín, says he welcomes the lawsuit -- it alleges he allowed security forces to massacre civilians during the protests -- as a way to ``expose the truth.''
He blames the deaths on President Evo Morales, who was among the coca growers and labor chiefs who helped lead the protests. It was a rebellion ''inspired by the Cuban ideology'' and funded by Venezuela's government, Sánchez-Berzaín said.
CANNIBALISM SUSPECT SAYS DEATH ACCIDENT
The Miami Herald
Oct. 16, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
An aspiring horror novelist told investigators he accidentally killed his girlfriend but denied eating parts of her, authorities said Tuesday, a day after forensic experts said flesh found in a frying pan in the man's apartment was human.
In his first testimony since he was arrested last week, Jose Luis Calva reportedly said he squeezed the life out of Alejandra Galeana, 32, on Oct. 5 while trying to restrain her during a violent argument. Calva said Galeana began slapping him after he told her he wanted to break up.
"He tried to control her by grabbing her and hugging her from behind. But because of his strength, she fainted. He took her pulse and found she had died. He put her on the bed and then began to think of a way to get rid of the body, and started cutting it up to get rid of it, piece by piece," the Mexico City Attorney General's Office said in a statement recounting his testimony.
MEXICAN EXPERTS SAY FLESH WAS HUMAN
The Miami Herald
Oct. 16, 2007
MEXICO CITY --
Forensics experts said Monday that chunks of flesh found in the apartment of an aspiring horror novelist were human, and that DNA tests were planned to confirm whether it came from the body of his girlfriend.
Dr. Rodolfo Rojo, chief medical examiner for Mexico City's prosecutor's office, said flesh found on the plate and frying pan in suspect Jose Luis Calva's apartment corresponded to parts missing from the corpse of his 32-year-old girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana.
Police found Galeana's body in a closet in the suspect's apartment last week after her family led police to the building. Prosecutors said she had been strangled and partially dismembered.
GUATEMALAN ADOPTION LAW RAISES CONCERNS
The Miami Herald
Oct. 16, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY --
Facing widespread allegations against adoption procedures here, the Guatemalan legislature is considering a new law that has raised concerns among both potential adoptive parents and adoption lawyers.
The law would bring Guatemala into compliance with the Hague Convention, an international agreement on adoption procedures designed to avert pitfalls such as ''baby mills'' that make huge profits off adoptions.
The number of children leaving Guatemala for international adoptions quadrupled since 1997 to a total of 4,803 last year, with 95 percent of them going to U.S. parents through a network of private lawyers and foster homes only loosely regulated by the government.
SCIENTISTS FIND BONES OF UNKNOWN DINOSAUR SPECIES
The Miami Herald
Oct. 16, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO --
The skeleton of what is believed to be a previously unknown dinosaur species -- a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found -- has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.
Scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for ''giant'' and ''chief,'' and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton's excavation.
OWNERSHIP FIGHT ERUPTS OVER MAYA RUINS
The Christian Science Monitor
October 17, 2007
Chichen Itza, Mexico - This ancient city, once the most important center of the Maya world, has stood in the jungle here for more than 1,000 years. Scattered across 100 acres, the remains of stone temples and a crumbling observatory offer an imposing glimpse into the innovative Maya civilization, which recorded the annual solar cycle with Swiss-watch precision.
Today tourists gape as they walk past Chichen Itza's most-recognized site, the 80-foot Temple of Kukulkan pyramid, where during the spring and fall equinoxes the sun casts a shadow in the shape of a plumed serpent. They walk across the Great Ball Court, the largest sports venue in Mesoamerica, where losing players were believed to be decapitated.
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