Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's Journal15 jailed for life in Argentina 'dirty war' trial
15 jailed for life in Argentina 'dirty war' trial
| October 24, 2014 | Updated: October 24, 2014 9:49pm
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine court has convicted and sentenced to life in prison 15 former military, police and civilian officials for abductions, torture and killings of dozens of dissidents during the country's 1976-83 dictatorship.
Four others received sentences of 12 or 13 years, and two defendants were acquitted.
Among the victims whose cases played a role in the trial was Laura Carlotto, daughter of the founder of the activist group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. Her newborn son was taken from her shortly before she was executed in 1978 at the La Cancha detention center in a rural area of Buenos Aires province and turned over to a couple for adoption. In August, after DNA tests, the son was reunited with his grandmother, Estela de Carlotto, head of the Grandmothers.
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/15-jailed-for-life-in-Argentina-dirty-war-trial-5846586.php
(Short article, no more at link.)
Massacre in Mexico
Massacre in Mexico
Laura Carlsen and Foreign Policy In Focus on October 24, 2014 - 6:02 PM ET
Following a week of accolades abroad, President Enrique Peña Nieto returned home to face the worst political crisis of his administration. Protests rage after local police forcibly disappeared forty-three students of Ayotzinapa, a rural teaching college in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero. As the investigations continue, the crisis has laid bare the violence and corruption that control large parts of the nation.
Led by youth, protesters across the country blame the government for the attack and others like it. As the father of one of the missing students said, “The government knows where they are.” His tone expressed deep fatigue and even deeper pain.
On the night of September 26, police patrol cars from the city of Iguala blocked the buses his son and other students were traveling in, and opened fire on the students. In a bizarre series of events, an armed commando attacked the students in the same spot hours later. During the night, more students from Ayotzinapa arrived to rescue their companions, and members of the state teachers’ union came to help. The shooting went on.
Nearby, a third attack—on a local soccer team possibly made up of Ayotzinapa students as well—left another youth dead. Videotapes in the hands of the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office reportedly show that local police also participated in this attack, which appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Federal police arrived at the scene at least two hours later and refused to tend to the wounded.
More:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/185433/massacre-mexico
Nestle workers meet in Colombia, urge protection for unions
Nestle workers meet in Colombia, urge protection for unions
Oct 23, 2014 posted by Joel Gillin
Nestle workers from around the continent have met in the Colombian capital to build unity and coordinate their efforts against the policies of the multinational, the Colombian food industry union said Wednesday.
In an interview with Colombia Reports, Edgar Paez, a leader with the national food industry union Sinaltrainal, said that the meeting was a follow-up to last year’s meeting of the Coordinator of Nestle Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean (Cotranalc).
“Cotranalc decided to meet here in Colombia to strengthen solidarity, bring a greeting of Latin American and Caribbean unity, and at the same time oxygenate the struggle against the policies of the multinational Nestle,” Paez said.
Sinaltrainal has long been critical of Nestle’s labor policies in Colombia. Of the 20 Sinaltrainal union activists that have been killed since the 1986, at least 14 have been Nestle workers, according to Paez. Nestle admits that seven of its unionized workers have been killed.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/nestle-workers-meet-colombia/
Cuba calling: what this small island can teach the world about disease control
Cuba calling: what this small island can teach the world about disease control
West Africa needs what Cuba has: a well-trained, coordinated healthcare system. Anything less and Ebola wins
Conner Gorry in Havana
Guardian Professional, Thursday 23 October 2014 12.43 EDT
Guatemala, Pakistan, Indonesia, Haiti. Four different nations that share a common experience: in the past decade, they were all struck by natural disasters which overwhelmed their under-staffed and under-funded public health systems. Into the rubble, flooding, and chaos of these distinct cultures and contexts, Cuba dispatched a specialised disaster and epidemic control team to support local health providers. It was a story of unprecedented medical solidarity by a developing country which few media outlets picked up – until now.
The Henry Reeve Brigade, as it’s known, was established in 2005 by more than 1,500 Cuban health professionals trained in disaster medicine and infectious disease containment; built on 40 years of medical aid experience, the volunteer team was outfitted with essential medicines and equipment and prepared to deploy to US regions ravaged by Hurricane Katrina (the offer was rejected by the Bush administration). Today, Cuba’s Henry Reeve Brigade is the largest medical team on the ground in west Africa battling Ebola.
The small island nation has pledged 461 doctors and nurses to provide care in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the largest single-country offer of healthcare workers to date. While United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decried the pallid aid commitment from around the globe calling for “a 20-fold resource mobilisation and at least a 20-fold surge in assistance” Cuba already had 165 of these specially-trained healthcare workers on the ground in Sierra Leone. Each of these volunteers, chosen from a pool of 15,000 candidates who stepped forward to serve in west Africa, has extensive disaster response experience.
Nevertheless, preparation for this mission required additional, rigorous training at Havana’s Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine with biosecurity experts from the United States and the Pan American Health Organisation. This rapid mobilisation of sorely-needed health professionals begs the question: how can a poor developing country spare qualified, experienced doctors and nurses?
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/oct/23/cuba-healthcare-lessons-ebola-sierra-leone-guinea-liberia
'Stop the Toxic Treadmill': EPA Sued for Approving Controversial Herbicide
Published on Thursday, October 23, 2014
by Common Dreams
'Stop the Toxic Treadmill': EPA Sued for Approving Controversial Herbicide
Green groups slam the agency for green-lighting Dow Chemical's Enlist Duo, whose key ingredient 2,4-D is also found in Agent Orange
by Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Green groups on Wednesday sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its recent approval of Dow AgroSciences' herbicide Enlist Duo, which farmers and scientists warn threatens human and environmental health.
"The toxic treadmill has to stop," said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. "EPA and USDA cannot continue to ignore the history, science, and public opinion surrounding these dangerous chemicals so that a failed and unnecessary system of chemically-dependent agriculture can continue to destroy our health and environment."
The EPA last week approved Enlist Duo for use on corn and soybean crops that are genetically engineered to survive exposure to the herbicide. Wednesday's suit charges the approval was unlawful because the agency failed to adequately consider the human impacts and did not consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Enlist Duo's key ingredient, known as 2,4-D, was also used in Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Studies find 2,4-D interferes with hormonal and reproductive function and is linked to cancer, liver disease, Parkinson's disease, and other health problems. Scientists warn that 2,4-D builds up in the environment and spreads from one field to another, posing a risk to animals as well as people.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/23/stop-toxic-treadmill-epa-sued-approving-controversial-herbicide
Drug cartels across the border just as brutal as ISIS
Drug cartels across the border just as brutal as ISIS
Horrific violence not isolated to Middle East
By: Ellen Weiss
Posted: 3:17 PM, Oct 23, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. officials have argued that atrocities committed by the militant group ISIS are barbaric and that the group is a threat to the homeland, but it’s worth remembering that the horrific violence perpetrated just across the U.S. border by Mexican drug cartels is equally barbaric and the cartels also pose a threat to Americans.
This week brought another bloody reminder of the cartel’s brutality. Mexican activist Maria Del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, a physician and citizen journalist who had taken a prominent stand against Mexican cartels on social media, died with a bullet in her head. And her killers, in an obvious effort to terrorize others, tweeted her murder.
Yes, as President Barack Obama noted in his Sept. 24 address to the UN General Assembly, ISIS is leaving a trail of rape, beheadings, dead children and mass graves. The numbers are terrifying: More than 5,500 people have been killed in Iraq since June, according to the United Nations.
But here are some numbers – also terrifying – from just across the U.S.-Mexico border: In 2013, Mexican drug cartels murdered more than 16,000 people, and Human Rights Watch estimates more than 60,000 people were killed in drug-related violence from 2006 to 2012.
More:
http://www.newsnet5.com/decodedc/drug-cartels-across-the-border-just-as-brutal-as-isis
Chevron Will Lose Ecuador Pollution Case on Both Law and Facts
Chevron Will Lose Ecuador Pollution Case on Both Law and Facts
Posted: 10/22/2014 1:04 pm EDT Updated: 10/22/2014 1:59 pm EDT
Prediction: Chevron will lose the historic Ecuador pollution case on both the law and the facts, despite what you may have read in articles by U.S. legal reporters about the 20-year plus lawsuit.
In fact, you may think the Ecuadorians have lost already. They haven't.
If you care about the plight of indigenous people everywhere, you should consider another set of facts you haven't heard much about, at least in the U.S., and then make your own prediction.
Earlier this year, New York Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled the $9 billion Ecuador judgment against Chevron was fraudulent and not "collectible" anywhere in the world. In 2012, Judge Kaplan ruled it was not "enforceable" but the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals quickly reversed him sending Chevron's lawyer Randy Mastro backed to the command center at his law firm Gibson Dunn, where job number one is to protect multi-national companies taking advantage of weak judiciaries and governments in poverty-stricken areas often populated by indigenous groups.
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-hinton/chevron-will-lose-ecuador_b_6023142.html
14 Facts about Torture in Mexico
October 22, 2014
14 Facts about Torture in Mexico
For years Amnesty International has been investigating and recording evidence of torture in Mexico. The latest report, Out of Control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico, is full of shocking facts about just how widespread and toxic the problem is. We found:
1. Torture and other ill-treatment is out of control in Mexico – the number of reported complaints in 2013 (1,505) was 600 per cent higher compared to 2003, according to the National Human Rights Commission. Even that increase is probably an underestimate of the true figures.
2. Between 2010 and the end of 2013 the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received more than 7,000 complaints for torture and other ill-treatment. The CNDH has seen a recent reported drop in complaints in 2014, but rates are still far higher than a decade ago.
3. Fear of torture is widespread. 64 per cent of Mexicans are scared of being tortured if taken into custody, according to a recent survey commissioned by Amnesty International.
4. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment increased as violence spiralled in Mexico after 2006, as a result of the government’s “war on drugs”.
More:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/news-item/14-facts-about-torture-in-mexico
[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Looking for answers for what happened in 2006 when the violence exploded in Mexico regarding drug trafficking:
The Mérida Initiative (also called Plan Mexico by critics, in reference to Plan Colombia) is a security cooperation agreement between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the declared aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training, equipment and intelligence.
In seeking partnership with the United States, Mexican officials point out that the illicit drug trade is a shared problem in need of a shared solution, and remark that most of the financing for the Mexican traffickers comes from American drug consumers. U.S. law enforcement officials estimate that US$12 to 15 billion per year flows from the United States to the Mexican traffickers, and that is just in cash, i.e., not including the money sent by wire transfers.[1] Other government agencies, including the Government Accountability Office and the National Drug Intelligence Center, have estimated that Mexico's cartels earn upwards of $23 billion per year in illicit drug revenue from the United States.[2][3]
U.S. State Department officials were aware that former Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s willingness to work with the United States was unprecedented on issues of security, crime and drugs,[4] so the U.S. Congress passed legislation in late June 2008 to provide Mexico with $400 million and Central American countries with $65 million that year for the Mérida Initiative. The initiative was announced on 22 October 2007 and signed into law on June 30, 2008.
~snip~
Mexico remains a transit and not a cocaine production country. Marijuana and methamphetamine production do take place in Mexico and are responsible for an estimated 80% of the methamphetamine on the streets in the United States,[5] while 1100 metric tons of marijuana are smuggled each year from Mexico.[6]
In 1990, just over half the cocaine imported into the U.S. came through Mexico. By 2007, that had risen to more than 90 percent, according to U.S. State Department estimates.[7] Although violence between drug cartels has been occurring long before the war began, the government used its police forces in the 1990s and early 2000s with little effect. That changed on December 11, 2006, when newly elected President Felipe Calderón sent 6,500 federal troops to the state of Michoacán to put an end to drug violence there. This action is regarded as the first major retaliation made against cartel operations, and is generally viewed as the starting point of the war between the government and the drug cartels. [8] As time progressed, Calderón continued to escalate his anti-drug campaign, in which there are now well over 25,000 troops involved.
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative
Uribe rejects President’s invitation to discuss peace
Uribe rejects President’s invitation to discuss peace
Oct 22, 2014 posted by Emil Foget
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has rejected the invitation he received from President Juan Manuel Santos to discuss the current peace talks, calling it a “false gesture,” local radio station Santa Fe reported Wednesday.
The invitation was an apparent attempt to ease now-Senator Uribe’s opposition to peace negotiations in Havana between the government and the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group, which began in 2012.
MORE: Santos invites Uribe to talk peace
After being confronted and asked for an answer multiple times, Uribe finally rejected the invitation, claiming it was insincere. Ex-president Uribe has been outspoken in his opposition to the ongoing peace talks, a point of contention between Uribe and the current president.
The former president himself has received fierce criticism for bashing his successor’s peace talks after recently leaked documents exposed that Uribe had been attempting similar peace talks during his second presidential term (2006 and 2010).
More:
http://colombiareports.co/uribe-rejects-presidents-invitation-discuss-peace/
What’s So New About Cuba’s Medical Internationalism?
What’s So New About Cuba’s Medical Internationalism?
by Mateo Pimentel / October 21st, 2014
Fidel Castro, 88-year-old revolutionary hero and anti-imperialist icon, recently published in the Cuban daily Granma that his island nation would readily cooperate with the US to wrestle Ebola. This is not the first gesture of goodwill that Cuba has made toward the US regarding cooperation, either; rather, it is one of many invitations to solidarity that happen to echo across an icy political tundra spanning years of embargo. Perhaps the newest aspect of Cuba’s long-lived medical internationalism is that, in 2014, it yet defies decades of imperial embargo. Cuba’s international medical mission yet survives Yankee economic terrorism, and does so with an outstretched hand for partnership! Other than Cuba’s remarkable magnanimity that persists well into the 21st century, there is little new about Cuba’s maverick ethos of serving the Third World and its public health.
Despite unimaginable economic hardship, Cuba has had no qualms with proffering (and actually sending) America its vital resource: human capital. Facts amassed within the last few years are worth revisiting, especially given that the size of the Cuban population is a decimal of US numbers, and that Cuba’s financial capability does not compare with America’s. Consider the following:
◾For more than 40 years, Cuban doctors have worked abroad, and Cuban hospitals have received patients from around the world.
◾Cuba has had more than 30,000 health care personnel (19,000 physicians) in over 100 countries.
◾Cuba has sent medical teams to Chile, Nicaragua, and Iran, responding to devastating death tolls and destruction caused by earthquakes.
◾An emergency medical team of almost 2,500 Cubans treated 1.7 million people affected by the 2005 Pakistan earthquake alone.
◾Cuba has sent medical personnel to El Salvador to assuage the outbreak of dengue fever, donating more than 1,000,000 doses of meningitis vaccinations to Uruguay after an outbreak there.
◾Cuba sent medical task forces to Iraq during the Gulf War (which remained there after international relief organizations left); it sent medical crews to the beleaguered peoples of Kosovo, too.
◾Cuban medical personnel went to Guyana in 2005, to aid in flooding, and also to Paraguay so as to work with infectious diseases and epidemiology.
◾Nearly 100 Cuban doctors worked in Botswana in 2005, combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
◾Cuba has also offered thousands in medical staff to work with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
The foregoing list in no way exhausts Cuba’s extensive history of medical internationalism. Again, it goes without saying that Cuba’s medical endeavors are decades old. It has been an enduring, if unofficial, pillar of the Cuban Revolution.
More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/10/whats-so-new-about-cubas-medical-internationalism/
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