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Rio police raid on favela kills at least 18, sparks anger
A police operation Thursday targeting gang members in Rio de Janeiro's largest complex of favelas, or low-income communities, left at least 18 people dead in one of the deadliest raids the city has seen recently and one already bringing more criticism of police violence.
Rio authorities said 16 suspected criminals were killed in confrontations with police in Complexo do Alemao along with a police officer and an woman. A police spokesman said the raid targeted a criminal group that stole cars and robbed banks, and invaded nearby neighborhoods.
Videos circulating on social media showed intense shootouts between criminals as well as a police helicopter flying low over the small, brick houses. Rio’s police have used helicopters to shoot at targets, even in densely populated residential areas, and video showed shots being fired from the favela at the aircraft.
Also read: At least 13 killed in Ecuador prison riot
At the site of the raid, Associated Press reporters saw residents carrying about 10 bodies as bystanders shouted, “We want peace!” Residents said those who attempted to help the injured risked arrest.
“It’s a massacre inside, which police are calling an operation,” one woman told AP, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals from authorities. ”They’re not letting us help (victims),” she added, saying she saw one man arrested for attempting to do so.
A Rio’s police force spokesman said some of the criminals wore uniforms to disguise themselves as police officers.
“I would rather they (the suspects) had not reacted and then we could have arrested 15, 14 of them. But unfortunately they chose to fire at our policemen,” said Ronaldo Oliveira, an investigator of Rio’s police.
Also read: U.S. embargo negatively affects Cubans' daily lives
Rio state Gov. Cláudio Castro said on Twitter he lamented the police officer's death.
"I will continue to fight crime with all my strength. We will not back down from the mission of guaranteeing peace and security to the people of our state,” Castro said.
But many disagree with the government's strategy for tackling violence and organized crime, an approach that regularly sees deadly police operations. A raid in Rio's Vila Cruzeiro favela in May killed more than 20 people.
Thursday's operation was aimed at locating and arresting criminal leaders, some from other states, police said in an early statement.
“ENOUGH of this genocidal policy, governor!” Talíria Petrone, a federal lawmaker for Rio, said in response to the governor's tweet. “This failed public security policy leaves residents and police on the ground, en masse. It’s no longer possible to keep piling up Black bodies and favela residents every day!”
Alemao is a complex of 13 favelas in northern Rio, home to about 70,000 people. Nearly three-quarters of them are Afro-Brazilians, according to a July 2020 study published by the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economical Analyses.
Earlier this year, Brazil’s Supreme Court established a series of conditions for police to conduct raids in Rio’s favelas as a means to reduce police killings and violations of human rights. The court ordered that lethal force be used only in situations in which all other means have been exhausted and when necessary to protect life.
The ruling came in response to a raid on the Jacarezinho favela in 2021 that resulted in 28 people being killed. As was the case Thursday, an officer died during that raid, which some speculated at the time was the cause for subsequent abuse and summary executions.
Thursday’s operation began before dawn and finished around 4 p.m. local time, police said. Nearly 400 police officers were involved, including Rio’s tactical police unit, backed up by four helicopters and 10 bullet-proofed vehicles, according to the police statement.
In a video shared by Voz da Comunidade, a community news outlet focused on Rio’s favelas, residents can be seen calling for peace and waving white cloths from their windows and rooftops.
Fabrício Oliveira, one of the coordinators of the police raid, said authorities fear that Friday could be another violent day at the Complexo do Alemao.
“Our experience has told us that after raids like these police are attacked in every way,” Oliveira said.
At least 13 killed in Ecuador prison riot
At least 13 inmates were killed and another two injured in a prison riot on Monday in the Ecuadorean city of Santo Domingo following a fight among inmates in the prison.
The National Police, the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Public Health were called to the emergency and the situation was brought under control, the National Comprehensive Care Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty said in a report.
The same prison was hit by violence on May 9, resulting in the death of 44 inmates.
Read: Earthquake shakes Ecuador’s coast, teen killed by power line
The Ecuadorean prison system has been afflicted with a serious crisis due to confrontations between rival drug trafficking gangs.
In 2021, the country saw a wave of prison riots that left more than 300 inmates dead. The government has declared a crackdown on drug trafficking.
U.S. embargo negatively affects Cubans' daily lives
The U.S. embargo has dealt a huge blow to the Cuban economy and society, and "is the principal obstacle to the Cuban population seeking prosperity," Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said in recent days.
Thousands of Cubans are affected daily by the U.S. embargo against the island.
Due to the embargo, Cubans are unable to access a lot of software and applications developed in the United States, 32-year-old Yasiel Rodriguez, who works at a mobile phone repair shop in the capital city of Havana, told Xinhua.
"It is annoying," he said. "We are supposed to have access to the entirety of websites and applications, but it is not possible due to the U.S. sanctions."
First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 further measures, including banning all U.S. airline flights from the United States to Cuban cities except for Havana and limiting remittances that Cuban Americans could send to their families living on the island, among others.
Geulis Vega, a Havana resident who is visually impaired, said that the embargo negatively impacts the living standards of disabled people.
"If the U.S. blockade was lifted, Cuba could access technologies and medicines that very much contribute to the well-being of people like me," he said.
Read: U.S. Coast Guard suspends search for 10 missing Cubans
Eduardo Rivas, president of the Cuban Society of Cardiology, said that the U.S. sanctions directly affect people suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
"The U.S. blockade restricts the Cuban public health system's capacity to purchase pacemakers on the international market," he said.
Under the current U.S. administration, airlines have resumed flights to Cuba beyond Havana and caps on family remittances to Cuba have been lifted.
"These are positive measures, but if the U.S. government really wants to help the Cuban people, they must end the blockade," said Havana resident Yakelin Santana. ■
Earthquake shakes Ecuador’s coast, teen killed by power line
An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 5.7 shook Ecuador’s coast Thursday, causing one death when a teenager was electrocuted by a fallen power line, authorities said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of about 80 kilometers (49 miles) and was centered nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of the port of Guayaquil.
Read: Earthquake jolts Dhaka, other areas
The Geophysical Institute of Ecuador said the tremor was felt over most of country, though “weakly” in the mountains.
Jorge Vera, mayor of the Simón Bolívar canton in the coastal Guayas province, said a 16-year-old was killed. He said a high voltage cable fell while the victim was engaged in “a sports activity,” but gave no further details.
Venezuela jails 3 Americans amid US outreach
Three Americans were quietly jailed in Venezuela earlier this year for allegedly trying to enter the country illegally and now face long prison sentences in the politically turbulent nation, The Associated Press has learned.
None of the arrests have previously been reported. Two of the men — a lawyer from California and a computer programmer from Texas — were arrested in late March, just days after President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government freed two other Americans.
Venezuelan security forces nabbed lawyer Eyvin Hernandez, 44, and computer programmer Jerrel Kenemore, 52, in separate incidents in the western state of Tachira, according to a person familiar with investigations into the arrests. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the cases publicly.
Hernandez is from Los Angeles; Kenemore is from the Dallas area, but had lived in Colombia since 2019.
A third American was arrested in January, also for allegedly entering the country illegally along its lengthy border with Colombia. AP is withholding his name at the request of his family
At least eight more Americans — including five oil executives and three veterans — remain imprisoned in Venezuela, and U.S. officials insist they are being used as political bargaining chips.
The latest arrests come amid efforts by the Biden administration to unwind the Trump-era policy of punishing Maduro for what they consider his trampling on Venezuela’s democracy. Instead, Biden officials are trying to lure him back into negotiations with the U.S.-backed opposition to pave the way for free and fair elections.
As part of that still-early outreach, the U.S. has dangled the possibility of easing sanctions on the OPEC nation — a move that, over time, could also help lower oil prices, which spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The release of two Americans on March 8 was celebrated in Washington, giving a boost to the Biden administration’s outreach to Maduro. It’s not clear what impact, if any, the jailing of three more Americans will have on relations with Maduro, a close ally of Russia whom the U.S. has sanctioned and indicted on narcotics charges.
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The State Department confirmed the three arrests and a spokesperon said officials are advocating for the immediate release of all wrongfully detained Americans in Venezuela.
Beyond any political fallout, the arrests point to what U.S. officials consider an alarming trend: the arrest of unsuspecting Americans along the Colombia-Venezuela border, a lawless area dominated by criminal gangs and leftist rebels. Americans trying to enter Venezuela without a visa are especially vulnerable.
Despite Maduro’s often fiery rhetoric against the U.S. “empire,” there’s no indication he is targeting Americans for arrest.
But with the South American country torn apart after years of political unrest, hyperinflation and devastating food shortages, Maduro’s grip on his poorly paid security forces is constrained. That’s created an opening for criminal elements and hardliners looking to spoil Maduro’s talks with the U.S.
“There’s a lot of different centers of power in Venezuela and not all of them are aligned with Maduro or share his goal of seeing talks with the U.S. advance,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group.
In one arrest report seen by the AP, Venezuelan military counterintelligence agents substantiated their actions by citing the U.S.’s “constant threats, economic blockade, and breaking of diplomatic relations.”
Some top Venezuelan officials also justify the arrest of Americans. In a June 13 press conference announcing the arrest of another, unnamed American, Socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello said: “They have their plans against our country.”
Hernandez, who was arrested March 31, was supposed to appear in court on Monday but the hearing was postponed.
Hernandez migrated to Los Angeles as a toddler with his parents, who were fleeing civil war in El Salvador. After graduating from the University of California Los Angeles law school, he turned down lucrative jobs to instead work as a public defender representing indigent and sometimes homeless defendants, a sign of his charitable spirt, friends and relatives said.
Like Maduro, Hernandez loves salsa music and has a history of labor activism. An avid traveler, Hernandez was taking a short break from work when he traveled to Colombia, where he’s been several times before, his brother said. Right before he was due home, he accompanied a Venezuelan friend to the border. His family said it was never his intention to go to Venezuela, nor would he knowingly break the law.
Hernandez’s friend is also being held and faces the additional charge of migrant smuggling, according to the person familiar with investigation.
“My entire family deeply misses my brother,” Henry Martinez, who also lives in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “He has worked his entire career serving marginalized people and he is truly the best of us. We hope and pray that Eyvin can return home very soon from this mistaken arrest.”
Two weeks before Hernandez’s arrest, Kenemore was taken into custody in similarly murky circumstances.
According to Kenemore’s family, he had been living in Colombia for over a year with a Venezuelan woman he met online when both were getting over divorces. The two shared a small apartment where Kenemore was working remotely for a client in the U.S., but had decided to relocate to Venezuela, where his girlfriend had a home.
Hurricane Bonnie weakens, heads out into Pacific
Hurricane Bonnie weakened Wednesday after becoming the first major storm of the eastern Pacific season while off southern Mexico, though it wasn’t a threat to land.
Bonnie was moving farther away from Mexico’s Pacific coast four days after crossing Central America as a tropical storm from the Caribbean and dropping heavy rain, contributing to at least two deaths.
Read: Pamela could be hurricane again as it makes Mexico landfall
Forecasters said they expected the hurricane, which grew into a Category 3 storm Tuesday before losing strength, heading generally westward farther out into the open sea. But the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Bonnie had caused rough surf on parts on of Mexico’s southwestern coast.
Bonnie had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) early Wednesday, according to the hurricane center. It was centered 355 miles (570 kilometers) south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes, near the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, and was moving west at 14 mph (22 kph).
The storm caused heavy flooding while crossing sodden Nicaragua after making landfall as a tropical storm on the country’s Caribbean coast late Friday.
Two people died in separate events related to flooding, Nicaragua’s army said in a statement. It said 40-year-old Alberto Flores Landero died trying to cross the swollen Mati river in Siuna in Nicaragua’s northeast and Juan Carlos Alemán, 38, died trying to help passengers from a bus that fell into the Ali Bethel river in the same area.
Ecuador president cuts gasoline price amid Indigenous strike
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced a cut in gasoline prices Sunday that appeared to fall short of the reduction demanded by Indigenous leaders to end a strike that has paralyzed parts of the country for two weeks.
The reduction cuts the price of gasoline by 10 cents per gallon. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador has demanded compliance with a 10-point agenda, including the reduction of the price of extra gasoline from 2.55 to 2.10 dollars a gallon and diesel from 1.90 to 1.50.
Speaking on national television late Sunday, Lasso said the price of fuel “has become the cornerstone that maintains the conflict.”
“Ecuadorians who seek dialogue will find a government with an outstretched hand, those who seek chaos, violence and terrorism will face the full force of the law,” he said, emphasizing that the country must return to normality.
There was no immediate reaction from the Indigenous confederation.
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The move comes shortly after Lasso lifted a state of emergency he’d imposed in six provinces and government officials held initial talks with protest leaders. It also comes as lawmakers discuss an opposition request to remove Lasso from office amid the strike, which has caused food shortages and hurt the economy.
Indigenous protesters are demanding a cut in gasoline prices, price controls on agricultural products and a larger budget be set for education. Lasso had accused the leader of the at-times violent strike of seeking to stage a coup.
On Thursday, the Indigenous confederation said a demonstrator died of pellet wounds in the chest and abdomen while protesting near the National Assembly in Quito, where about 100 other people suffered a variety of injuries. Police tweeted that officers were also injured by pellets.
In Quito, protesters blocking roads have brought the city to a near halt and people are experiencing food and fuel shortages. Groups of protesters have roamed the city attacking vehicles and civilians and forcing the closure of businesses, some of which were looted.
4 killed when stands collapse during Colombian bullfight
Part of the wooden stands collapsed during a bullfight in central Colombia Sunday, sending spectators plunging to the ground and killing at least four people and injuring hundreds, authorities said.
The disaster took place in a stadium in the city of El Espinal in Tolima state during a traditional event called “corraleja” in which members of the public enter the ring to engage the bulls.
Read:At least 20 dead in South African club; cause not yet known
Videos taken during the bullfight show a three-story section of the stands collapsing as people screamed.
“We have activated the hospital network in Tolima,” Tolima Gov. José Ricardo Orozco told local Blu Radio. “Four people have died, as of this moment: two women, a man and a minor.”
Mayor Juan Carlos Tamayo said 800 spectators were seated in the sections that collapsed.
Late Sunday, Tolima health secretary Martha Palacios said in a press conference that 322 people had gone to local public and private hospitals after the collapse seeking treatment. Palacio said the minor who had died was an 18-month-old baby.
Besides the four dead, another four people were in intensive care and two others recovering from surgery.
Orozco said he had asked for the traditional “corralejas” to be suspended in Tolima earlier Sunday but this one was held anyway.
President-elect Gustavo Petro urged local officials to ban such events, noting that it was not the first time an incident like this had taken place.
Read:Survivors recount Mali's deadliest attack since coup
“I ask mayors not to allow more events involving the death of people or animals,” he said.
Current President Iván Duque on Twitter announced an investigation of the disaster.
“We lament the terrible tragedy registered in El Espinal, Tolima, during the festivals of San Pedro and San Juan, with the collapse of the stands during a corraleja. We will call for an investigation.”
Death toll from Brazil floods at least 91, with dozens lost
Authorities in northeastern Brazil’s Pernambuco state said Monday that 91 deaths have been confirmed from flooding over the weekend, with more two dozen people still missing.
Hundreds of state and federal rescue workers were searching for 26 people currently unaccounted for, according to the official statement.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday flew over the affected area of Pernambuco’s capital, Recife, and neighboring Jaboatao dos Guararapes. Speaking to reporters afterward, he said that landing in the helicopter wasn’t possible due to the soaked soil.
He also noted the country has recently experienced similar disasters in the mountains above Rio de Janeiro, in southern Bahia state and in Minas Gerais state.
“Unfortunately, these catastrophes happen in a continent-sized country,” he said. “We’re all obviously sad. We express our sympathy to family members. Our bigger objective is to comfort families and also, with material means, attend to the population.”
The government is moving to make funds available to municipalities that have declared a state of emergency, Daniel Ferreira, the minister of regional development, said at the press conference. He also highlighted a new credit line available to cities afflicted by such disasters.
Also Read: 37 dead in heavy rains in Brazil
Experts say climate change contributes to more intense rainfall, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has classified Recife’s metropolitan region as one of the world’s most vulnerable cities. The low-lying metro region is set at the delta of three rivers, features floodplains and a network of dozens of canals and is home to some 4 million people.
In March, Recife became the first Latin American city to sign on for participation in a program to that will create insurance against climate disasters created by a network of local and regional governments and financed by German development bank KfW.
The state’s civil defense authority said in a statement that the flooding has displaced 5,000 people from their homes, and has reinforced its alert about still-high risk of landslides. Rain has continued, albeit with less intensity.
2 journalists killed in Mexico; 10th and 11th of the year
Just as Mexican journalists prepared to protest the killing of a journalist last week, word came Monday that two more were shot to death in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, raising to 11 the number of such killings in the country this year.
The Veracruz State Prosecutor's Office said via Twitter that it was investigating the killings of Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi and Sheila Johana García Olivera, the director and a reporter, respectively, of the online news site El Veraz in Cosoleacaque.
Veracruz State Prosecutor Verónica Hernández Giadáns said the investigation would be exhaustive, including considering their journalism work as a possible motive in their killing.
The State Commission for Attention To and Protection of Journalists said the two women were attacked outside a convenience store.
“We condemn this attack on Veracruz’s journalism profession, give it prompt monitoring and have opened an investigation,” the commission said.
Their killings came on the heels of the ninth slaying of journalist this year, in the northern state of Sinaloa. Prosecutors there said Thursday that the body of Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos was found on a dirt road near a junkyard in the state capital, Culiacan.
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Prosecutors said that his body was wrapped in black plastic and that he died from multiple blows to the head.
Ramírez Ramos’ news website, “Fuentes Fidedignas,” or “Reliable Sources,” said that he had been abducted near his house hours earlier.
The dizzying pace of killings has made Mexico the deadliest country for journalists to work outside of war zones this year.
On Monday evening, Griselda Triana, wife of Javier Valdez, a journalist slain in 2017, spoke to some 200 journalists gathered at Mexico City’s Angel of Independence monument. The demonstration had originally been scheduled to protest the killing of Ramírez Ramos and those who preceded him.
Valdez, one of Mexico’s best-known journalists killed in recent years, was an award-winning reporter who specialized in covering drug trafficking and organized crime in the northern state of Sinaloa.
“In all this time I haven’t stopped thinking about how easy it is for them to kill a journalist in Mexico,” Triana said. “I feel hurt each time they take the life of so many colleagues.”
“There’s so much anger, indignation, powerlessness knowing that we come here to protest the murder of Luis Enrique Ramírez, (that happened) a few days ago in Culiacan, Sinaloa, and the news of the killing of two women journalists in Veracruz reaches us here,” Triana said. “It’s a whirlpool. The crimes against freedom of expression keep occurring every day. We shouldn’t tolerate it. We have the authority to ask the authorities to put a stop to this slaughter of journalists.”
The victims, like those killed Monday, are most often from small, hyperlocal news outlets. El Veraz operated a Facebook page and appeared to almost exclusively post notices about events or public information from the municipality's government. El Veraz’s motto was “Journalism with Humanity.”
The phone number listed for El Veraz rang to what appeared to be Mollinedo Falconi's cell phone, according to its message.
Also read: U.S. journalist killed by attack near Kyiv
Cosoleacaque is just off a major east-west route in southeastern Veracruz. Organized crime is present in the area and involved especially in migrant smuggling, but there was no immediate indication of who could have been responsible.
Veracruz Gov. Cuitláhuac García said a search was underway for those responsible.
“We will find the perpetrators of this crime, there will be justice and there will not be impunity like we have said and done in other cases,” García said via Twitter.
Journalists had already scheduled a demonstration for Monday in Mexico City to protest killings of their colleagues, most recently that of Ramírez Ramos in Sinaloa.
Mexico’s state and federal governments have been criticized for neither preventing the killings nor investigating them sufficiently.
While organized crime is often involved in journalist killings, small town officials or politicians with political or criminal motivations are often suspects as well. Journalists running small news outlets in Mexico’s interior are easy targets.
Mexico has a protection program for journalists and human rights defenders, but it was not immediately known whether either Mollinedo Falconi or García Olivera were enrolled.
Participants receive support, such as electronic devices or “panic buttons” to alert the authorities to any threat; surveillance systems in their homes; even bodyguards in some cases. Often authorities recommend that threatened journalists move to another state or the capital to lessen the threat, but that means separating them from their work, livelihood and families.
While President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised a “zero impunity” program to investigate such slayings, journalists’ murders, like most homicides in Mexico, are never resolved by authorities. López Obrador has also kept up his regular verbal attacks on journalists critical of his administration.
In February, the Inter American Press Association called on the president to “immediately suspend the aggressions and insults, because such attacks from the top of power encourage violence against the press.”
In March, the European Union approved a resolution that “calls on the authorities, and in particular the highest ones, to refrain from issuing any communication which could stigmatize human rights defenders, journalists and media workers, exacerbate the atmosphere against them or distort their lines of investigation.”
Late Monday, presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez said via Twitter that the federal and state governments would work together to investigate the killings. “The commitment is that there is not impunity.”