SARAH MORLAND
Thu, Mar 2, 2023, 6:26 PM CST
2 min read

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Local lawmakers in Mexico approved legislation on Thursday that would suspend parental rights for men being investigated for femicide, the first such reform in the country, as well as ramping up sanctions for those responsible for acid attacks.

Mexico faces some of the world's highest levels of gender violence, and spates of femicides - murders of women or girls on basis of their gender - has sparked fierce protests as women fight for more accountability.

Legislators in central Puebla state unanimously backed a reform to "remove, suspend or modify parental rights in cases of femicide," prompting loud cheers in the chamber following a minute's silence for femicide victims.
The reform is known as Monzon's law after lawyer Cecilia Monzon, who was shot dead last May. Authorities later arrested the key suspect, a former congressman and father of her child.

State lawmakers also unanimously approved legislation to sanction acid attacks with up to 40 years in prison, treating the crime as an equivalent to attempted femicide.
The reform, nicknamed Malena's law, honors saxophone player Maria Elena Rios, who testified at the debate three years after surviving an acid attack in her home which left her severely burned.

More:
https://sports.yahoo.com/mexican-state-votes-toughen-legislation-002632436.html

Authorities and media blamed Medellin Cartel for state terrorism campaign
by Adriaan Alsema March 1, 2023

Colombia’s army was behind the “narco-terrorism” that made Medellin the “murder capital” of the world in the 1980’s, according to a declassified CIA report.

The 1988 report that has been made public by the National Security Archive contradicts decades of government propaganda, which blamed the extreme violence in Colombia’s second largest city on late drug lord Pablo Escobar and the now-defunct Medellin Cartel.

The previously classified report confirms claims by Medellin human rights defenders and scholars, who have insisted that local authorities were behind many of the assassinations and massacres between the mid-1980’s and the beginning of the 2st century.

Many of the homicides and massacres that were carried out in the later 1980’s and the early 1990’s were part of “Love for Medellin, a local initiative that combined terrorism and propaganda in order to promote State authority.

American intelligence officials warned Washington DC in April 1988 that the 4th Brigade of Colombia’s National Army, now-defunct intelligence unit B2 were behind a “wave of assassinations” against “suspected leftists and communist” in Medellin throughout 1987.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombias-army-turned-medellin-into-murder-capital-of-the-world-cia/

Brazil to privatise some of its national parks soon – minister
28 MAR 2019

The recently-elected Bolsonaro government will embark on a process of privatising management of national parks amid criticism the government prefers economic development over conservation of environment.



This May 8, 2018 photo released by the Brazilian Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources Institute shows an illegally deforested area in Brazil's Amazon basin. (AP)
Brazil aims to begin privatising the management of its national parks this year, including some of its most famous natural tourist sites, the country's Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said on Wednesday.

The government aims to privatise as many as possible, he said.

Salles listed Foz do Iguacu, one of the world's largest waterfalls that straddles the border with Paraguay and Argentina, as one of many famous national parks around the country that could be brought under private management.

A system to carry out the privatisation will be in place "definitely this year," Salles told reporters following a hearing in Brazil's Senate.

"We'll see how many we are able to do.

Fears voiced by conservationists

Activists and environmentalists have said they fear right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who assumed office in January 2019, will roll back environmental oversight in the country in favour of economic development.

On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro criticised fines for environmental infractions, considered pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate and at one point proposed that the agriculture and environment ministries be merged.

More:
https://www.trtworld.com/americas/brazil-to-privatise-some-of-its-national-parks-soon-minister-25321

Alessandra Sampaio, widow of British journalist Dom Phillips, left, and Beatriz Matos, widow of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, centre, talk to indigenous people at Atalaia do Norte (Fabiano Maisonnave/AP)

TUE, 28 FEB, 2023 - 14:19
FABIANO MAISONNAVE, AP

A high-level delegation of the Brazilian government has travelled to the remote corner of the Amazon rainforest where British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were murdered to demonstrate their contrast with former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The group was led by Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s first minister of indigenous peoples. She was joined by the widows of both men. The trip involved several flights including a seaplane to arrive in Atalaia do Norte, an impoverished city by the banks of Javari River.

“We are here to re-establish the presence of the Brazilian government in the Javari Valley region,” Ms Guajajara told a mostly indigenous crowd gathered in a small, stifling auditorium. “It is no longer possible for indigenous people to be cowed and afraid within their own territory.”

During his four-year term which ended in January, Mr Bolsonaro attempted to open indigenous territories to mining, large-scale agriculture, and logging.

More:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41082071.html

Ovidio Guzman was arrested in January triggering a wave of violence in Sinaloa, the stronghold of their drug empire.

28 Feb 2023
The United States has asked Mexico to extradite a powerful son of jailed druglord Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, who is accused of drugs crimes, a Mexican government spokesperson has said.

Ovidio Guzman, captured in January, has allegedly helped to run the infamous Sinaloa cartel since his father was handed over to authorities in the US in 2017.

The US embassy in Mexico City presented the extradition request to the foreign ministry and attorney general’s office, the spokesperson told the AFP news agency. He did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

Two unnamed Mexican government sources also confirmed the extradition request for 32-year-old Ovidio Guzman to the Reuters news agency. The younger Guzman was captured near the city of Culiacan, in northern Sinaloa state, triggering a wave of violence that left dozens of people dead.

More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/28/us-requests-extradition-of-el-chapos-son-mexico-says






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Father, son



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Drug lord, trafficker, killer of wedding singers: How the ‘New Mouse’ followed in the bloody footsteps of his father El Chapo

Ovidio Guzman’s arrest was hailed as a major blow to Mexico’s all-powerful Sinaloa Cartel. The son of the notorious El Chapo may now face extradition to the US, writes Bevan Hurley

Tuesday 10 January 2023 22:38



Ovidio ‘El Raton’ Guzman helped take over the drug cartel run by his father ‘El Chapo’
(Getty/AP/Reuters)

Security forces in Mexico arrested the son of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman during a pre-dawn raid on a remote Sinaloan village on Thursday, Mexican authorities say.

Ovidio “El Raton” Guzman, 32, was taken into custody after a gunfight between federal authorities and Sinaloa Cartel in Jesus Maria, the Mexican defence secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval confirmed at a press conference on Thursday.

According to US authorities, Guzman is a major manufacturer and trafficker of fentanyl and methamphetamine imported across the border.

His arrest set off a night of terror in the Sinaloan state capital Culiacan as cartel members hijacked trucks and set them alight, blocking major exits to the city.

More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ovidio-guzman-el-chapo-arrested-sinaloa-mexico-b2256844.html

Coup attempts have gone viral this winter season in Latin America.

February 25, 2023
By Pressenza New York

The contagion spread first to Argentina, then Peru, and finally Brazil on January 8. In addition, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua continue to suffer from long-term US regime-change efforts.

Coverage of this political pandemic by the US liberal press (i.e., the preponderance of mainstream media that endorse a Democrat for the presidency) reflects politically motivated agendas. Its spin on Brazil in particular reflects a trend among Democrats to greater acceptance of the security state.

December 6 lawfare coup in Argentina
Current vice-president and former president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was the leading contender on the left for the 2023 elections. But on December 6, she was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption and barred from running for office. Although she is appealing what is considered a “lawfare” frameup, the right is anticipating a comeback in the upcoming October 2023 presidential election.

This incident in the third largest economy in Latin America has gone virtually unnoticed in the North American liberal press, and certainly no concern has been expressed about safeguarding democracy.

December 7 legislative coup in Peru
The day after the coup in Argentina, an already mercurial situation in Peru became more so. The elected president from a leftwing party was imprisoned in a parliamentary coup backed by the military. Pedro Castillo was disposed on December 7 when he tried to forestall a third impeachment attempt against him by dissolving Congress.

More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-winter-coup-season-in-latin-america-coverage-by-the-democratic-party-aligned-liberal-us-press/

That’s the first step of many he can take toward normalizing US/Cuban relations.

By Guillaume Long
YESTERDAY 5:00 AM

Last month, Havana was the seat of the first high-level talks between Cuba and the United States since 2018, fueling speculation that the Biden administration may be contemplating removing Cuba from the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST), an easy first step that wouldn’t require congressional approval.

In Washington, everybody knows that Cuba isn’t a state sponsor of terrorism. President Obama understood that when, in April 2015, he removed the island from the SST list (the Trump administration would later reinsert it). Ben Rhodes, one of Obama’s deputy national security advisers, tweeted at the time: “Put simply, POTUS is acting to remove Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list because Cuba is not a State Sponsor of Terrorism.”

Obama believed it was in the national interest for the US to veer away from its age-old Cuba policy. Stemming from his belief that engagement would serve a greater purpose than isolation, the shift contributed greatly to improving Obama’s standing in Latin America. After the fiasco of last year’s Summit of the Americas, Biden may find this to be an attractive prospect.

If anything, the election of left-of-center governments in several Latin American states means the region is now even more united on the Cuba issue than before. Unsurprisingly, a week before his trip to Washington, President Lula da Silva of Brazil said Cuba was likely to feature in his discussion with the US president, as “Cuba was always on the agenda” in his meetings with Bush and Obama.

More:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/cuba-state-sponsor-terrorism/

Or:
https://archive.ph/cEaoi#selection-1377.0-1384.0

Canada’s economic interests appear to influence our diplomatic and media response to protests and uprisings in the Global South

Owen Schalk / February 21, 2023 / 7 min read

Canada’s foreign policy record is stained with countless examples of hypocrisy, opportunism, and aversion to democracy, especially when it leads down the road of left-wing reforms. Ottawa’s hypocrisy is a result of its often pro-corporate international agenda. In countries where Canadian companies have many lucrative investments, state violence is allowed to occur without comment, while in countries which don’t serve as significant reservoirs of Canada-based capital, criticism is levelled with high frequency and virulence.

Recently, two examples have arisen that expose an obvious split in Ottawa’s attitude toward protests in leftist-governed countries and those ruled by the right: namely, the July 11, 2021 protests in Cuba and the ongoing Indigenous-led uprising across Peru.

Short-lived protests in Cuba

On July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans mobilized across the country for a day of protest against supply shortages caused by the US economic blockade. Elements of the protest movement called for the overthrow of the Cuban government, including several anti-communist diaspora groups. In the US, Cuban-American officials urged the Biden administration to intervene militarily; in one case, the mayor of Miami even called for airstrikes against Cuba to support the relatively small protests.

Ottawa sided with anti-government forces inside and outside Cuba, with Trudeau officials alleging that the Cuban government’s reaction was violent, repressive, and that it criminalized dissent. In the end, one protestor died and several sustained injuries.

More:
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/protests-in-cuba-vs-peru-a-case-study-in-canadian-hypocrisy

By Reuters
| Feb. 25, 2023, at 11:54 a.m.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's foreign ministry said on Saturday the country will maintain its diplomatic and consular representation in Peru and vowed to keep communication channels open, while regretting Peru's decision to remove its ambassador from Mexico.

Peru's newly installed President Dina Boluarte announced on Friday the withdrawal of the country's ambassador in Mexico, Manuel Gerardo Talavera, in response to comments from her Mexican counterpart branding her government as unconstitutional.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference on Friday that Mexico will keep supporting former President Pedro Castillo, saying he was democratically elected and illegally ousted by a deeply unpopular Congress and government that "rule with bayonets and repression, with force."

"We consider it a great injustice to have removed him (Castillo) from office because he was elected by the people. In addition, the conservatives of Peru, which are a minority, violated the constitution," Lopez Obrador said.

More:
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-02-25/mexico-to-maintain-its-diplomats-despite-peru-pulling-its-ambassador

By Lucas Forbes
Posted 2h ago



Tens of thousands of cuttlefish migrate to waters near Whyalla for the winter breeding season every year. (Supplied: Carl Charter)

The site for Australia's largest breeding migration of giant Australian cuttlefish is now on the National Heritage List.

Every winter, tens of thousands of giant Australian cuttlefish migrate to the shallow, rocky shores at Point Lowly near Whyalla to breed, in an area known as the Cuttlefish Coast Sanctuary Zone.

That area is now on the National Heritage List, alongside sites like Bondi Beach, Uluru Kata-Tijuta and the Great Barrier Reef.

Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said the move would protect Australia's "underwater lightshow".

More:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-25/sa-cuttlefish-on-national-heritage-list/102023608

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17 Crafty Facts about Cuttlefish
First published 31st January 2022 Sam Khu

Cuttlefish are truly strange critters – you won’t come across them unless you spend some time scouring the sea – so to save you a trip any time soon, we’ve lined up a few fun facts about cuttlefish well worth remembering. Read on for some curious cuttlefish clues!

1. Cuttlefish can really vary in size and shape.
Cuttlefish vary in size from an average of 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) and weigh up to 23 lbs.

2. There are scores of cuttlefish species.
There are approximately 120 species of cuttlefish. They are sometimes known as ‘Cuttles’.

3. They blend in really well!
Cuttlefish belong to the class Cephalopoda and the order Sepilda. They are also often referred to as the ‘chameleons of the sea’.



4. They are fairly in-depth!
Cuttlefish are often found in shallow waters but many have been seen as far down as 3,000 feet!

More:
https://factcity.com/facts-about-cuttlefish/