by the El Reportero news services
John P. Walters
On 21 Feb. Mexico featured heavily in a TV debate between the two Democratic party contenders for the US presidency and drew an unprecedented comment from the US drugs czar, John P. Walters. On 4 March Texas, with its big Hispanic population, holds its primary along with Ohio, which also has a large immigrant population: the Hispanic votes, in both elections, could be decisive in deciding whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton heads the Democrat ticket for the presidential elections in November. Walters was speaking after a security summit in Mexico and issued a grim warning that the narco-violence in Mexico is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Land negotiations in Guatemala
Members of the group told Yoc that they had occupied the disputed land for more than a decade and that a powerful person had been trying to kick them out, he told AP.
Almost half of Guatemala’s population are indigenous, many landless peasants who often invade land for farming.
Yoc also said that the government may drop charges filed against a jailed indigenous Maya farm leader, Ramiro Choc, who was arrested last week on charges of illegal land invasion, robbery and holding people against their will.
Luiz Lula da Silva
Authorities say Choc leads land seizures in the region and has encouraged locals to take over protected nature reserves.
However the villagers had earlier called for his release.
Choc had urged the villagers to release the officers in a telephone call from prison, Ricardo Gatica, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told AP.
Five members of a local farmers union and community representatives will also be flown to Guatemala City, the capital, to negotiate with the government over the land.
Álvaro Colom
Land disputes were one of the catalysts for the country’s brutal civil war between 1960 and 1996 which left around 250,000 people dead or missing.
In January Guatemala’s new president, Alvaro Colom, took office with a pledge to reduce crime and violence. However, crime continues to be at high levels with about 6,000 people being murdered in the country every year.
Guatemala is one of the poorest central American nations, with half of its 13 million people living on less than $1 a day, and discrimination against the ethnic Mayan majority remaining high.
Credit card scandal rocks Lula government
Ramiro Choc
The government of President Lula da Silva is at the centre of a corruption scandal involving government-issued corporate credit cards. The Brazilian government began to distribute the cards to senior officials seven years ago in order to cover emergency and unforeseen expenses incurred during their official duties.
However, as the number of government credit cards has more than tripled since 2004 (to an estimated 11,510 cards), so the interpretation of “emergency” expenses has become more lax and abuses more frequent. The scandal could have major implications for Lula’s Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) in October’s municipal elections. AP and Aljazeera contributed to the report.
