by the El Reportero’s wire services
A Guatemalan judge set the date for the audience on upcoming December 8, which will define whether former Vice President Roxana Baldetti will face trial, and determined three months for parties to deepen research.
The judge Miguel Angel Galvez said Nov. 25 is the last day the Public Ministry and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) will have, to investigate the alleged involvement of Baldetti in a network called La Linea, dedicated to the diversion of millions of dollars in custom offices.
The former vice president must enter the Santa Teresa preventive women’s center in three days.
Santa Teresa is located in the north of the capital.
ccording to the prosecutors, Baldetti was the leader of a corruption structure known as La Linea and regulated the anomalous entry of goods in Puerto Quetzal, Santo Tomas de Castilla and the Central Customs.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday started the preliminary hearing procedure requested by the MP CICIG against former president Otto Perez Molina, and referred the case to Congress, which must designate a commission to determine if the president’s immunity is lifted.
Divorce rates grow in Panama as unmarried unions thrive
Nearly four thousand marriages file for divorce every year in Panama, as unmarried union are gaining popularity, a phenomenon that according to experts respond to a change in the social mindset.
According to sociologist Marcos Gandásegui, young couples prefer unmarried unions to marriages, the latest being more predominant among people with specific interests, mostly form the upper-middle class.
Paradoxically, this group of people also registers an increase in the divorce rate; a marital status that has grown in a 10 percent over the last five years.
A survey conducted by La Estrella de Panama journal and the online marketing firm Feebbo revealed that people get married to have children and safe sex, convenience, peer pressure, fear to loneliness and appearances.
“We should work in order for people in unmarried unions to get married and have the rights that come with it”, said Marylin Vallarino, president of the Family Commission of the National Assembly.
Central America and the Caribbean on agricultural alert
An agricultural alert was decreed by the governments of Central America and the Caribbean, given the effects of the severe drought currently affecting 1.6 million farmers and their families.
The appeal was decided by the ministers of agriculture of the region, to help the victims, to coordinate the cooperation of the international community and technical assistance to offset the damage to crops and livestock.
Along with the warning they issued a statement referring evaluations by each country to implement policies for adapting to climate change, protection of coffee plantations under the onslaught of the rust fungus and the implementation of a plan of family farming in the next six months.
Due to its geographical location, Central America and the Caribbean are affected each year by climate variability generated economic losses.
The Agricultural Council and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture recently reported that in the Corredor Seco Central food production is affected by the water deficit in the past months, and severe risk conditions for crops are presented.
They also warned that the situation could worsen because the irregularity in the distribution of rainfall, prolonged heat waves and the early withdrawal of the rainy season crops can compromise.
According to figures from the World Food Programme about 1.6 million people have been affected by drought in the corridor due to El Nino has caused the loss of crops, mainly corn, beans and rice, basic in the region.
