Irish boat skipper convicted over 80m cocaine cargo

The Irish skipper of a fishing boat has been convicted of trying to smuggle around a tonne of cocaine into Britain.

The drugs haul – the biggest seizure of cocaine in Britain in 2016 – had a potential value of nearly £84 million.

Michael McDermott, 68, from Co. Waterford, was found guilty by a jury at Bristol Crown Court today following a one week trial.

National Crime Agency and Border Force officers arrested McDermott on August 18, 2016 alongside shipmates David Pleasants, 57 of Peppercorn Walk, Grimsby, and Gerald Van de Kook, 27 of Amersfoort, Netherlands.

Both Pleasants and Gerald Van de Kooij admitted drug importation offences, but McDermott had denied the charge, claiming he knew there were drugs on board but had been forced into shipping them.

Following McDermott’s conviction today all three men will now be sentenced on April 6.

At: http://irishpost.co.uk/irish-boat-skipper-convicted-over-80m-cocaine-cargo/

Why did Argentina's players go on strike? And how did it get resolved?

The second half of the 2016-17 season was supposed to get underway in Argentina on March 3. Instead, after a week of arguments and confusion, the weekend's top-flight fixtures were called off late that day, even after the first two games should have been played.

After days of protracted and difficult negotiations, the players' union and Argentine Football Association (AFA) eventually signed a deal to end the strike around lunchtime on Wednesday, March 8, and Thursday night first division football resumed with an 89th minute goal by Mariano Pavone that gave Vélez Sarsfield (of Buenos Aires) a 3-2 home win over Estudiantes de La Plata.

Why did the players go on strike?

Late last Thursday night, the players' union Futbolistas Argentinos Agremiados voted to strike for the weekend games over unpaid wages. Not all players are owed money - River Plate's treasurer confirmed to ESPN FC that their squad's wage bill is up to date, for example - but those who had been paid chose to stand with those who hadn't.

Agremiados wrote an open letter to the AFA when they first threatened strike action saying that "numerous clubs owe salaries, in some cases dating back four months."

In short, in most cases the money didn't seem to be there. In mid-January, the AFA published a list of 14 clubs (out of 60 professional clubs) who would be forbidden from registering new signings until their debts with the association were paid off. Some 30 clubs owe the AFA a total of 1.1 billion pesos ($70 million) between them.

Among the causes for this sudden shortfall are a sharp decline in stadium revenues during 2016, coupled with higher overhead costs, as a sharp devaluation and austerity policies decreed by President Mauricio Macri have led to a nearly 10-fold hike in public utility rates and higher inflation in general.

Football for none

AFA finances have also been impacted by Macri's decision to discontinue the Fútbol Para Todos (Football For All) TV-rights-as-state-subsidy program, which resulted in a 350 million peso ($22 million) unpaid debt on the part of the federal government plus 40 million pesos ($2.5 million) from the program's chief private sponsor, local oil firm Axion Energy. Once the strike was announced, Macri ordered payment of said debt.

Enacted by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2009, the program nationalized TV rights for professional football and made game broadcasts, which had previously been available mostly to cable subscribers willing to pay pay-per-view fees, universally available.

Budgeted at $180 million annually, Football For All (FPT) was often criticized by opponents for its cost - particularly the media conglomerate Clarín Group, which controlled the top private sports broadcaster in Argentina (TyC) and which frequently made use of its cable and print news arms to lambaste the program.

Its supporters, however, pointed out that the cost per viewer (72 U.S. cents each for 250 million+ viewers annually) was a small fraction of pay-per-view fees that ranged from 15 to 30 dollars per game. Argentines, most of whom are avid football fans, often organized at-home tailgates or crowded their nearest bar.

The quality of the broadcasts themselves - which before FPT often deliberately refrained from showing goals in order to force viewers to watch the post-game analysis shows - likewise improved.

The government's rescission of FPT has meanwhile opened Argentine football broadcasting to bids from private companies again and three broadcasting giants (ESPN, Fox Sports, and Spanish group Mediapro) are currently having their bids analyzed. A 1.2 billion peso ($75 million) advance "key" payment for the broadcast rights is built into all three bids, further bolstering financial prospects for the AFA.

At: http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-united-blog/68/post/3074116/argentina-season-missed-restart-date-due-to-players-strike-and-here-is-what-you-need-to-know

[center]

Facing pay-per-view charges of 30 dollars a game, crowded bars were a common sight in Argentina on football nights until the state-run FPT broadcasts were enacted in 2009.

Macri, elected largely thanks to corporate media support, has now reinstated pay-per-view.[/center]

Top Argentine labor group pickets over wages, challenging Macri

Workers represented by Argentina's main labor federation, the CGT, gathered in Buenos Aires on Tuesday to protest job cuts and pay raises that have not kept up with inflation, challenging the government seven months ahead of key congressional elections.

The one-day picket, which attracted tens of thousands of workers, was the first march by the CGT labor federation this year. It came amid a two-day teachers' strike that on Monday delayed the opening of school after the Southern Hemisphere summer holidays.

Mauricio Macri became Argentina's president in late 2015, vowing to jump-start the economy through fiscal reforms aimed at attracting sorely-needed investment. But the promised wave of foreign direct investment has instead resulted in a 50% plunge in same, as inflation doubled from 23% as of November 2015 to 45% a year later and budget deficits - despite austerity measures that have led to massive utility rate and fare hikes - jumped by 62%.

While now moderating, inflation remained at 38% as of January. The Central Bank hopes to cut that rate to 17%; private economists, however, project a rate of around 25%.

Employers meanwhile have been hard-pressed to raise pay packages in line with inflation while Macri's push to cut business costs has prompted layoffs in the public and private sectors totaling around 200,000 in 2016 alone. "The layoffs have continued and deepened since January," CGT spokesman Julio Piumato told Reuters. "There has been a big loss in wages. We hope the government changes its policies, which are creating poverty."

The discontent comes at a bad time for Macri, who needs his right-wing Cambiemos ('Let's Change') political coalition to do well in October's mid-term elections in order to keep pushing his economic reforms through Congress and position himself for re-election in 2019.

Teachers, some of whom joined Tuesday's CGT march, demand salary increases to make up for the purchasing power lost to inflation last year; the SUTEBA Buenos Aires Province teachers' union, the nation's largest, want a 35% pay hike for 2017. Governor María Eugenia Vidal, a close Macri ally, has offered them an 18% raise.

The dispute took a sinister turn on Saturday when SUTEBA leader Roberto Baradel received detailed death threats against his children, followed by the controversial decision by right-wing talk host Eduardo Feinmann to display photos of Baradel's daughter and two sons. Baradel called this a "mafia-like message."

At: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/top-argentine-labor-group-pickets-over-wages-challenging-macri-20170307-01163#ixzz4afv2y8on

Debate erupts in Uruguay after court ruling blocks woman's abortion at ex-boyfriend's request

Public debate in Uruguay centered around the divisive issue of abortion this week following a court ruling that blocked a woman from terminating her pregnancy after her former partner appealed to the courts to block the procedure.

According to local news reports, the unnamed 24-year-old woman was ordered last week not to carry out the procedure because the father, her former boyfriend, wants to keep the baby and raise it on his own. The mother, however, said this week that she is suffering from a medical condition that may prevent her from bringing the baby to term.

Uruguayan law gives her until the 12th week of pregnancy to obtain the procedure.

Judge Pura Concepción Book, of the western city of Mercedes, ruled that the abortion contravened rights under international child-protection treaties and the Uruguayan Constitution, as well as infringing on the rights of the father. Judge Book also concluded that the woman had not “respected” the terms of the 2012 law that legalized abortion.

The Legal Abortion in Uruguay group issued a statement calling the order “abhorrent” and arguing that such decisions should be made by the woman in question alone. The country’s Constitution, they pointed out, extends no protection to unborn children.

“I feel violated, insulted,” the woman told the Montevideo news daily El País. “It’s like nobody cares about your life, your decision, what happens to you, what you feel, your condition, and you have to see from the outside how other people, who only care to make a profit, make a decision about your life,” she added, noting that her relationship with the man requesting the injunction was casual and that “at no time” had they ever discussed becoming parents.

Her ex-boyfriend said that whatever the outcome of the case, he intends to take the case to the nation’s Constitutional Court to obtain a ruling on whether fathers have rights over an unborn child.

Uruguay is the only country in South America where abortion is legal. There were 9,362 registered abortions there in 2015, compared to around 48,000 live births.

Abortion was legalized by President José “Pepe” Mujica after it passed Congress by a razor-thin margin in 2012.

At: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/224866/abortion-debate-erupts-in-uruguay-after-controversial-court-ruling

New York gallery owner denied entry to US

Source: CNN

An Argentine art gallery owner based in New York will miss the opening of his institution's newest show because he was denied entry to the United States.

Juan García Mosqueda, founder and owner of Chamber Gallery in New York City, claimed in an open letter that he was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport after returning from a visit to Argentina. García Mosqueda says he was held for 14 hours without access to legal counsel. He was allegedly ushered by armed officers onto a return flight to Buenos Aires later in the day.

"During the following fourteen excruciating hours, I was prohibited from the use of any means of communication and had no access to any of my belongings, which were ferociously examined without any warrant whatsoever," García Mosqueda wrote in his letter. "I was deprived of food. I was frisked three times in order to go to the bathroom, where I had no privacy and was under the constant surveillance of an officer."

In a statement, US Customs and Border Protection said that while they wouldn't comment on individual cases because of the Privacy Act, "CBP not only protects U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents but also ensures the safety of international travelers who come to our country to visit, study and conduct legitimate business."

Chamber, located in New York's art gallery-filled Chelsea neighborhood, is described as a "21st century cabinet of curiosities for one-of-a-kind, rare and limited edition objects of design and art." García Mosqueda, who was born in Argentina and educated in the United States, where he has lived for 10 years, opened the gallery in 2014.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/us/gallery-owner-detained-argentina-trnd/

Argentina's Macri pledges transparency as prosecutors probe family ties

Speaking to a joint session of Argentina's Congress, President Mauricio Macri announced on Wednesday he would issue decrees aimed at cracking down on conflicts of interest in Argentina's politics, as prosecutors pushed to investigate more of his family's business ties.

"I want everything to be transparent and open, and for nobody to doubt the decisions this president makes," said Macri, son of one of Argentina's richest men, Francesco "Franco" Macri.

Federal prosecutors have brought cases against the president and his family over allegations of various conflicts of interest, putting political pressure on his right-wing "Let's Change" coalition before legislative elections in October.

Last month, Macri was criticized over a deal his government reached on a 15-year old debt the Argentine Postal Service incurred when it was owned by Macri's father between 1997 and 2003. Prosecutors claim the deal, which writes off up to 98% of a $270 million tax debt, improperly benefits his family.

Macri said at the time the deal had been handled legally; but apologized for a lack of transparency and revoked the agreement.

On Wednesday, a federal prosecutor asked a judge for permission to investigate Macri and other officials over allegations they favored Colombian airline Avianca in a plan to open more domestic air routes in Argentina. Avianca was given access to Argentina's domestic air traffic market two months after the Macri family conglomerate, SOCMA, sold a small charter airline, MacAir, to Avianca Holdings last April.

Members of Macri's administration and his family have also come under scrutiny over a bribery scandal involving Brazil's largest builder Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying nearly $800 million in bribes across Latin America.

Prosecutors announced in January they were investigating whether Macri's spy chief, Gustavo Arribas, received a $600,000 bribe from Odebrecht - a charge Arribas has denied despite proof Odebrecht wired the funds to his Swiss bank account.

Brazilian newspaper Estadào reported on Monday that Odebrecht e-mails from 2010 revealed that at least $20 million in bribes were arranged jointly with Argentine builder IECSA, owned by the president's cousin, in a scheme to win a contract for a rail project during the previous government.

The $3 billion Sarmiento rail tunnel project, awarded to a consortium led by Odebrecht and IECSA, was green-lighted by Macri last June.

At: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-politics-idUSKBN1685GS?il=0

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Lava Jato scandal: Odebrecht e-mails show $20 million in bribes involving key Macri rail project

The São Paulo-based news daily Estadão reported that the Brazilian bribery investigation known as Lava Jato (Car Wash) identified five e-mails in which $20 million in bribes were agreed upon between Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant at the heart of the scandal, and IECSA - the construction firm controlled by the family of Argentine President Mauricio Macri.

The e-mails, dating from 2010, were between Mauricio Couri Ribeiro, an Odebrecht executive in Argentina, and a IECSA representative, Javier Sánchez Caballero. Lourenço Ghella, of the Italian construction firm Ghella, is also mentioned.

Their exchanges detail a scheme to funnel some $20 million in bribes, in three tranches, to secure a lucrative rail tunnel contract in Argentina. Couri Ribeiro confirmed to Brazilian Federal Police that the terminology used in the e-mails - "DGI-Direct Contact" - referred specifically to bribes.

The controversial $3 billion project to convert the Sarmiento commuter rail line, which connects Buenos Aires to its western suburbs, into an underground line, was awarded in June to the IECSA-Odebrecht-Ghella consortium, and is the centerpiece of Macri's $7 billion federal public works program.

IECSA, Argentina's third largest public contractor, was founded and is owned by the Argentine president's father, Francesco Macri, and has since 2007 been led by the president's first cousin Ángelo Calcaterra.

Odebrecht CEO Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced in March to a 19-year prison term for paying nearly $800 million in bribes in 12 countries since 2001 to secure contracts.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicargentina.com%2Fnotas%2F201702%2F19632-correos-de-odebrecht-involucran-al-primo-de-macri-en-la-corrupcion-de-la-empresa-brasilena.html&edit-text=