by the El Reportero’s wire services
GerGen.Efraín Ríos MontMembers of the Court A for Higher Risk Cases of Guatemala decided today to resume the suspended trial against ex Gen. Efraín Rios Montt and Jose Rodríguez, accused of genocida and crimes against humanity.
President of the court, Jazmín Barrios, and members Patricia Bustamante and Pablo Xitumul, resolved unanimously to continue the oral and public debate carried out until April 18, when magistrate Carol Patricia Flored decided to overturn it.
The court rejected part of the appeal resolution of the Third Appeal Court ruling that the process must be repeated.
Court A also complied with what the Constitutionality Court ruled, rejecting four testimonies offered on March 19 and in the first hours of the hearing of March 20, when Rios Montt had no lawyer. The prosecution accuses both former military of being the masterminds of the killing of 1,771 Ixil indigenous people in March 1982- August 1983 under the Rios Montt-led regime.
The resumption comes four days after Flores received the evidence presented by the defense team of Rios Montt and Rodriguez and ordered to give back the file to Jazmin Barrios, President of the Court A for Higher Risk Cases, which dealt with the trial for 20 days.
The UN and several Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu, made a call to resume the criminal process.
Central America suffering epidemic of coffee leaf rust
The Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization, Robério Silva, is visiting Central America to verify in situ the critical situation faced by coffee farmers because of the outbreak of Coffee Leaf Rust.
He attended the First International Coffee Leaf Rust Crisis Summit in Guatemala from 18 – 20 April 2013 and, in accordance with ICO Council Resolution 451, is now visiting each of the Central American countries affected by the disease like Nicaragua where his meeting several experts on the subject.
During a midday tv program in Channel 4 minister of government Rosario Murillo spoke about the visit to this capital of the Executive Director.
The fongus hemileia vastatrix,caused loses for 550 million dollars and of 441 thousand jobs lost.
Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean show slight rise
During the last three years, remittances to Latin America and Caribbean increased steadily and totaled 61.3 billion USD in 2012, the American Development Bank (IDB) reported in this capital.
The figure represents 0.6 percent more than the funds received by the Latin American and Caribbean from their family and friends living abroad in 2011, mainly due to the improvement in the U.S. labor market.
Still, that amount is slightly less than the 64.9 billion sent in 2008, maximum point recorded in the region.
Remittances to South America fell 1.1 percent, as opposed to those that were destined for Central America, which grew 6.5 percentage points.
The increase in Central America helped offset the decline in other major countries, which enabled the region as a whole to end the year with a slight increase, the report details.
According to the report Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2012: Differential behavior between sub regions, conducted by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the IDB, transfers to Mexico, the leading recipient, fell 1.6 percent.
Maduro appoints cabinet, remains firmly in Chávez’s shadow
From Latin News: “A new cycle of the Bolivarian Revolution.” That is what Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro promised when swearing in his cabinet days after his investiture as president on 19 April. A couple of his picks prompted raised eyebrows, but there was nothing to suggest that this “new cycle” differs from the old except for the massive void left by the passing of Hugo Chávez.
Maduro swore on the memory of Chávez and Simόn Bolívar while taking the oath of office. If he grows to feel more secure in his position, he might show the courage of his own convictions. For that, ironically, he probably needs the opposition, which is trying in vain to overturn the result, to continue to pose a challenge so that Chavismo remains united behind him.
