Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalBukele's Anti-Corruption Smokescreen
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
El Faro Editorial Board
Leer en español
Salvadoran police have announced the arrest of presidential commissioner Cristian Flores Sandoval on charges of corruption. According to the Attorney General’s Office, Flores offered state contracts in exchange for money. President Nayib Bukele, in the middle of his presidential “leave of absence” until June 1, wrote on X that the commissioner was neither the first nor the last official to face accountability for acts of corruption. Media outlets around the world, including the L.A. Times, Deutsche Welle, and France 24, reported the commissioner’s arrest and the president’s words. The trick worked.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo was even more generous, arguing in an article on the incident that the war against corruption announced by Bukele had “paid off” with the arrest of Flores.
His prosecution is good news for the country, assuming that the Attorney General’s Office can prove the accusations of corruption leveled against the now ex-commissioner. If he did in fact orchestrate a corruption scheme, his arrest is a positive step and he should face justice for his abuse of power. Corruption is, and has long been, one of El Salvador’s biggest problems.
A real fight against corruption, however, must begin with the fundamentals: a robust rule of law, judicial independence, and government transparency, which is to say, precisely those mechanisms that Bukele and his loyalists have spent the past five years destroying. What we are witnessing is not a fight against corruption.
If Bukele, his attorney general, and his police had fighting corruption on their agenda, the government would be purged from bottom to top. On the contrary, the function of El Salvador’s top prosecutor is to protect the corrupt and enable corruption for the home team. Commissioner Cristian Flores Sandoval has not been arrested for corruption.
More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202404/opinion/27318/bukele-rsquo-s-anti-corruption-smokescreen
Reporter recounts covering El Salvador's civil war The Biblio File
“El Salvador: Blood On All Our Hands” by George Thurlow. (Contributed)
By DAN BARNETT | Book Columnist
April 30, 2024 at 3:30 a.m.
With the approval of Ken Leake, publisher of the Woodland Daily Democrat, George Thurlow would take vacation time to report from one of the world’s hotspots — El Salvador. He arrived there on April 26, 1981.
Thurlow, editor of the Chico News & Review from 1981-1991, now living in Santa Barbara, spent only a few days in El Salvador during its civil war. Looking for the “bang bang,” the only way to get attention from news outlets back home, Thurlow and his translator, Gilberto Moran, were ambushed by the ruthless Treasury Police. Thurlow was wounded but Moran was killed. The Salvadoran police, Thurlow writes, “shoot first and don’t ask questions later.”
“El Salvador was in the throes of a civil war between the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, which fought to end government repression and for land reform, and an authoritarian government.” Weeks after Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. president in 1980, four U.S. religious figures, including three nuns, were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Meanwhile, Thurlow notes, the U.S. increased support for the government in its proxy war against the Soviets.
. . .
Much of the book recounts Thurlow’s agonizing but fruitless search for Moran’s grave and his family. “Like so many other Americans,” he writes, “I had come to El Salvador to make a point, and I was leaving behind a trail of misery. I had stories to tell … and a clear understanding of how the U.S. was behind so much of the terror. But it would take me 20 years to figure out my responsibility. My country never has.”
More:
https://www.chicoer.com/2024/04/30/reporter-recounts-covering-el-salvadors-civil-war-the-biblio-file/
A Guatemalan genocide trial echoes among South Florida's Ixil Maya
WLRN 91.3 FM | By Tim Padgett
Published May 1, 2024 at 6:00 AM EDT
- click link for image -
https://tinyurl.com/299jkm68
Indigenous Defiance: Ixil Maya women in 2014, in the western Guatemalan town of Nebaj, carry the coffin of an exhumed villager, killed during a military massacre there in 1982, to a new burial site.
A genocide trial has been underway in Guatemala since April 5 — and although Pedro Brito Matom says it's too dangerous now for him to attend it, he takes consolation in knowing he helped bring the historic case to court.
Brito, who lives in Lake Worth Beach, is an indigenous Ixil Maya from the town of Nebaj in Guatemala’s western highlands. He was four years old in April of 1982, during the worst days of Guatemala's 36-year-long civil war, when he says soldiers came to his family’s house late one night.
They wanted to kill Brito’s father, Miguel, whom Pedro says they falsely accused of being a leftist guerrilla. The father wasn’t there, but Brito's two uncles were. So he says the soldiers murdered them instead. “They slashed their throats with knives, right in front of me,” Brito recalls, his voice softly choking. “I was just a little boy, but I remember watching the blood spill out of my uncles.”
Now 46, Brito still has a cherubic face — but a determined mind. He later defied army threats and located the mass grave where he says soldiers buried his uncles, named Jacinto and Diego Matom. He then decided to help other Ixil Maya exhume murdered relatives and give their survivor testimonies. “Their plan was to exterminate us as a people,” Brito says of the Guatemalan military of that time. “And we wanted it known that one person was most responsible.”
More:
https://www.wlrn.org/americas/2024-05-01/guatemala-indigenous-ixil-maya-genocide-lucas-garcia-florida-lake-worth
Supreme Court Puppetmaster's Consulting Firm Clients Exposed in Leak
Story by Andrew Perez and Adam Rawnsley • 22h • 5 min read
The consulting firm led by Leonard Leo, the architect of the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority, has worked for billionaire Charles Koch's political advocacy network and a dark money group that is currently arguing a Supreme Court case designed to preempt a wealth tax, according to documents obtained by Rolling Stone. The firm even worked to promote a book by Donald Trump cronies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.
Leo has played a central role in shifting the high court and its decisions far to the right. As former President Donald Trump's judicial adviser, Leo helped select three of the Supreme Court's six conservative justices. He also leads a dark money network that boosted their confirmations, and helps determine what cases the justices hear and shape their rulings.
The Supreme Court connection has paid off for Leo - big time. In 2021, he was gifted control of a $1.6 billion political advocacy slush fund. Over the past decade, Leo's dark money network has plowed more than $100 million into his for-profit consulting firm, CRC Advisors.
Leo co-chairs the Federalist Society, the conservative lawyers network. He is also the chairman of CRC. Like many consulting firms, CRC does not publicly disclose its clients. However, several of the firm's clients were named in resumes that applicants submitted to an online jobs bank hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which accidentally left the files exposed online.
More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/supreme-court-puppetmaster-s-consulting-firm-clients-exposed-in-leak/ar-AA1nShyB
Right-wing media figures are citing a Spanish-language flyer of dubious origin as evidence that Democrats are importing
Right-wing media figures are citing a Spanish-language flyer of dubious origin as evidence that Democrats are importing new voters to “rig” electionsWRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY
PUBLISHED 04/19/24 12:41 PM EDT
Right-wing figures — and even some GOP politicians — shared social media posts from the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project that pushed dubious claims about Spanish-language flyers in Mexico, which they claimed were encouraging asylum-seekers to vote for President Joe Biden once they arrive in the United States. In reality, there are virtually no cases of noncitizens voting in U.S. elections, and the flyer's origins are questionable.
- Citing right-wing site Muckraker.com, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project posted an image of a Spanish-language flyer allegedly found at a humanitarian aid center in Matamoras, Mexico, and claimed that it asked asylum-seekers to “vote for President Biden when you are in the United States.” The dubious flyer appears to be printed on a Resource Center Matamoros letterhead and offers asylum-seekers legal help through its partner organization, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. After describing the services it offers, the letter seemingly veers into the political: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the U.S. We need four more years of his mandate to remain open.” The Oversight Project also provided video purporting to show the flyers posted in nearby port-a-potties. [Twitter/X, 4/15/24, 4/15/24]
- Resource Center Matamoros founder Gaby Zavala told The Associated Press that she did not know who made the flyer and that her aid organization “does not encourage immigrants to register to vote or cast ballots in the U.S.” The AP's analysis of the flyer noted that it “contained errors in spelling and grammar, and appeared to include verbatim paragraphs from the organization’s English-language website that were translated into Spanish using online translation software." [The Associated Press, 4/17/24]
- Even Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin said he was “extremely skeptical” of the flyer, which he said “appears to be a word for word Google Translate copy & paste of a portion of the NGO's English website, with ‘vote for Biden’ randomly added in at the end.” [Twitter/X, 4/16/24, 4/16/24]
More:
https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-figures-are-citing-spanish-language-flyer-dubious-origin-evidence
US sanctions: Cubana flights to Buenos Aires lifted after refueling is denied
Friday, April 26th 2024 - 19:34 UTC
Cubana had resumed its services to Buenos Aires almost a year ago
US sanctions: Cubana flights to Buenos Aires lifted after refueling is denied
Friday, April 26th 2024 - 19:34 UTC
As President Javier Milei's Argentina deepens its allegiance to the United States, Cuba's flag carrier Cubana lifted this week its regular service between Buenos Aires and Havana after fuel suppliers announced they would no longer be serving a company blacklisted from Washington in what seems like an encore of what happened to the Emtrasur Boeing 747-300 freighter flying under the Venezuelan flag following a spell with Iran's Mahan Air.
Cubana de Aviación was forced to cancel flights CU360/CU361 on April 23rd and 24th because of the measure announced at the Ezeiza International Airport serving the Argentine capital. Cubana's CEO Arsenio Arocha Elías-Moisés explained that due to the untimely measure suspending refueling its Cuban-flagged aircraft within the Argentine Republic, flights CU360/CU361 had to be canceled.
. . .
According to an undated statement from the Cuban carrier, Argentina invoked “provisions of the US blockade measures against Cuba.” The measure reached non-Cuban-flagged aircraft leased by Cubana for these flights, which has “prevented the airline from fulfilling its commitments to these passengers,” it was also explained. The Cuban authorities insisted that these events were “beyond any decision of Cubana de Aviación.”
Washington's sanctions against Cuba for over six decades include companies doing business with Havana. Cubana also serves Madrid and Caracas.
More:
https://en.mercopress.com/2024/04/26/us-sanctions-cubana-flights-to-buenos-aires-lifted-after-refueling-is-denied#
The Private Club That Governs Panama
Monday, April 29, 2024
Sol Lauría
El Faro first published this article in Spanish in June 2018.
It is not easy to get into Club Unión. First, there’s the thin stucco wall, several meters tall, encircling the premises. Then the steel-slat fence, a security booth, and a guard who sets the rules: “Are you a member?” “It’s private,” “No, not everyone can enter.” Then you call ahead and ask if they can please let you in. They tell you the same thing: members only, private, not for everyone. If you’re a member, the doors to the Club will open for you, along with the business done inside. Perhaps this will entice you to join. With the right contacts and two members to back you up, you can submit your application to management and let the wheeling and dealing begin: hobnobbing with members of the Admissions Board; inviting them to private parties, to an afternoon on your yacht, to participate in a promising investment; asking them to put in a good word with the 32 voting members, then waiting patiently for the ballot box to fill up while praying that no more than five members will reject your petition, preventing you from joining.
It’s true, chances are you’ll never make it in: Club Unión is not looking for people just for the sake of it. But if they do finally grant you access, a new story begins: you pay the $100,000 membership fee, then another $180 every month, then $3,200 more in dues, and on top of the financial contributions you agree to abide by the Club’s strict rules. Only then do you get your membership card. And thus, as if ascending the stage to accept an Oscar, you enter the exclusive world of La Gente Conocida — Panama’s wealthy and famous.
If none of that works, there’s always a seat in the waiting room. Perhaps one day a member will invite you to a Sunday brunch, a pasta night, or a wedding: a brief taste of exclusivity. After greeting the guard, you cross the front courtyard with its large fountain and on the other end, after passing through the wide portico entrance, you are warmly welcomed in the foyer. Once inside, you might run into people with the same surnames that fought for Colombia’s independence in 1903, or who backed the U.S. protectorate. Or the owners of banks, law firms, insurance companies, casinos, media outlets, private schools, security companies, ports, or —less aristocratic but just as lucrative— pawnshops. You might also meet a handful of Panama Canal administrators, half of the current government ministers, several members of past cabinets, a former president or two, and maybe the current president himself.
That place on the other side of the wall brings together the few who define the lives of the many. Here, they are called rabiblancos (“whitetails”) to distinguish them, but they are all El Poder, The Powerful, plain and simple. This is their Eden, their paradise, their Olympus, and they call it Club Unión.
* * *
Panama City is a place of contrasts. In ten blocks you travel from Singapore to Rwanda, from buildings made of mirrors and marked with international brand logos to others that look like the ruins from an earthquake. The most sought-after neighborhoods are on the coast, studded with steel and glass towers and speckled with square-plan mansions with large foyers and perfect palm trees: Casco Antiguo, Avenida Balboa, Punta Pacífica. Or the home of Club Unión: Punta Paitilla. Until 1957, Paitilla was pure, undeveloped scrubland and belonged, like another one-third of the country, to the United States. But when the gringos returned it, the Panamanian government decreed by law that it should become “one of the most picturesque and attractive places in the capital.”
More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202404/centroamerica/27313/the-private-club-that-governs-panama
Ecuador: Victims Of Modern Slavery Must Have Remedy And Reparation In Ongoing Lawsuits, UN Experts Say
Tuesday, 30 April 2024, 6:17 am
Press Release: UN Special Procedures - Human Rights
GENEVA (26 April 2024) – Victims of modern slavery in Ecuador’s abaca plantations, who suffered harrowing human rights abuses for decades under the Furukawa Plantaciones company, must be granted legal remedy and reparation in ongoing lawsuits, UN experts* said today.
“It is encouraging to see that Furukawa Plantaciones C.A. is being held accountable in two groundbreaking lawsuits on allegations of bonded and forced labour as well as serfdom,” the experts said. “Over 330 workers in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Los Ríos were reportedly subjected to forced labour, servitude and other grave human rights situations in the context of abaca production for over 60 years.”
Abaca is a large plant that is harvested for its fibre.
In a judgment on 15 January 2021, the Ecuadorian court of first instance recognised for the first time that the conditions of Furukawa Plantaciones S.A. workers constituted a violation of the right to equality, non-discrimination, prohibition of serfdom, to health, housing and education and that both the Ecuadorian State and Furukawa Plantaciones bear responsibility. The court ordered them to implement reparation measures. On appeal, the Provincial Court of Justice of the region of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas confirmed the company's liability but exonerated the responsibility of the Ecuadorian State.
A year later, as the Constitutional Court of Ecuador decided to review the case ex officio, workers at Furukawa Plantaciones reportedly continued to suffer harassment and retaliation by the company for seeking justice, in addition to living in extremely precarious conditions, the experts said. On 9 April, the Constitutional Court initiated a review hearing regarding the alleged omission of the Ecuadorian State, the direct liability of the company and the duty to pay reparations. Its verdict is expected in the coming weeks.
In parallel, the Criminal Court of Santo Domingo is expected to decide on 20 June 2024 if Furukawa Plantaciones should face criminal sanctions based on the human rights abuses it allegedly committed, including trafficking in persons for the purpose of labour exploitation.
More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2404/S00254/ecuador-victims-of-modern-slavery-must-have-remedy-and-reparation-in-ongoing-lawsuits-un-experts-say.htm
'The big elephant in Haiti': As country sinks into anarchy, how much is US' fault?
By ANDRES VIGLUCCI MIAMI HERALD • April 28, 2024
The Haitian flag waves over the Champ de Mars in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in June 2022. Sidewalk vendors have become sparse because of kidnapping gangs. (Jose A. Iglesias, Miami Herald/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — When a sitting Haitian president was assassinated in 1915, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent in the Marines to protect American interests and secure stability. The military occupation, which lasted 19 years, marked the start of more than a century of close and controversial U.S. entanglement in the volatile internal affairs of Haiti.
Though the particulars of the always-fraught relationship between Haiti and the United States have since shifted time and again, one thing has not: Very little of real political import happens in Haiti without the involvement of the U.S. government. U.S. policy in Haiti has been inconsistent at best, observers and insiders say, swinging from maintaining order at gunpoint to decades of propping up repressive, reviled leaders through political pressure and monetary and military aid. In more recent years, U.S. policy has focused on trying, and mostly failing, to secure a measure of democracy, political stability and economic development for the Caribbean country.
When things go wrong, as they often do in a poor nation long prone to political instability and shattered by a series of natural disasters in the past two decades, American administrations have shouldered the blame from Haitians and the outside world, accused at times of doing too much or, at others, not enough.
That persistent dynamic has come into stark relief once more as Haiti stands at a dangerous new boiling point following the 2021 assassination of unpopular, U.S.-backed President Jovenel Moïse. The installation by the U.S. and its allies of an acting prime minister widely seen by Haitians as both incompetent and corrupt sparked a shooting rebellion by an alliance of heavily armed criminal gangs that has left the country on the verge of political, economic and civil collapse.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/americas/2024-04-28/haiti-us-policy-13688334.html
Source - Stars and Stripes
US laundering revenue of Colombia's environmental crimes: NGO Lax US legislation and law enforcement facilitating enviro
Lax US legislation and law enforcement facilitating environmental crimes in Colombia
by Adriaan Alsema April 24, 2024
Much of the revenue of environmental crimes committed in Colombia are being laundered in the United States, a financial crimes analyst told Colombia Reports.
Financial crime expert Julia Yansura of the FACT coalition said that a recent report showed that “quite a significant amount of illicit revenue” that comes from illegal mining and forestry is either laundered or reinvested in the United States.
“The US unfortunately attracts dirty funds, not just from the US but other neighboring countries and around the world,” according to Yansura.
The crime expert said that drug trafficking groups “are increasingly turning to environmental crime” because “it’s very lucrative, just like narcotics, but the risk of getting caught is a lot lower.”
More:
https://colombiareports.com/us-laundering-revenue-of-colombias-environmental-crimes-ngo/
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