by the El Reportero news services
Evo Morales
LA PAZ – President Evo Morales fired water minister Abel Mamani after compromising photographs of Mamani were shown on national television.
Mamani is one of Morales’s most radical supporters. His forced departure weakens the radical wing of the government, just as it is squaring up to the rightwing secessionists in the east of the country.
The photos showed Mamani partially unclothed, embracing an alleged prostitute. The pictures followed allegations of corruption against the former minister.
Mamani maintained that he had been the victim of a smear campaign. He said that the photos had been faked and that on 9 November he had made a formal complaint to the special anti-crime squad (FELCC) claiming that he had been approached by four individuals seeking to extort money from him in exchange for not publishing the photos.
Volcano erupts on island in Lake Nicaragua
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – The Concepcion volcano in Nicaragua sent huge columns of ash into the sky in eruptions that prompted a ripple of small earthquakes, local seismologists said Sunday.
The volcano, one of two on an island in the region’s largest lake, erupted Saturday night and related earthquakes continued to rattle the area on Sunday. No one was injured by the blast, Nicaragua’s Institute of Territorial Studies said in a statement.
The 1,610-meter (5,282-foot) volcano is located 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the capital, Managua, on an island popular with adventure tourists in Lake Nicaragua, Central America’s largest lake.
Ash rained down on local communities on Sunday, as strong winds carried it to toward the capital, the institute said.
The Concepcion volcano, which shares its lake island with the dormant Maderas volcano, last erupted in 2005.
In Mexico, official says Colombian ring laundered euro45 million in drug money from Spain
MEXICO CITY – Authorities have uncovered a large criminal ring in Colombia that has laundered euro45 million (US$67 million) in cocaine profits from Spain over the past four months, a top Colombian official said.
The network’s success relied on 16,000 “ordinary” Colombians who were willing to receive and then turn over amounts of up to euro5,000 to euro10,000 euros (US$7,430 to US$14,860) apiece, said Mario Alejandro Aranguren, an intelligence official with Colombia’s Treasury Ministry.
The participants agreed to receive the cash in Colombian pesos at currency exchange houses and then turn it over to members of the ring in exchange for a small commission, Aranguren said during a symposium on money-laundering and drug trafficking in Mexico City.
Aranguren also noted that Spain has become a major market for Colombian cocaine.
The drug is not just sold there, “it also is distributed to Spain’s interior and from there, to other European countries,” Aranguren said.
