The number of female parliamentarians in the world has more than doubled since the groundbreaking U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 25 years ago, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said Friday. Part of the reason may be quotas.While female representation in national parliaments has increased, gender parity remains a distant dream. However, significant changes have occurred. In 1995, the top-ranked country in terms of female members of parliament was Sweden, followed by other Nordic and developed countries.This year, Rwanda, with more than 60% female MPs, beat 171 other countries for the top spot, followed by Cuba, Bolivia and United Arab Emirates. Sweden has been bumped down to seventh position.The Inter-Parliamentary Union finds countries in the Americas have made the most progress in terms of representation of women in parliament, followed by Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia. The Pacific, which holds up the bottom of the rankings, is the only region where some parliaments have no women.IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong said women fare best in countries that apply quota systems for their representation.“Wherever quotas are being used during electoral processes, we see an increase in the women’s representation when compared with the countries where there are no quota systems. So, we continue to lay emphasis on the need for quotas to be legislated in order to achieve gender equality,” he said.Chungong told VOA statistics show strong female participation in parliaments leads to better-designed and -implemented gender equality laws.“It is more often possible to address some of those issues that may be specific to women; such as, maternal and newborn and child health to be on the agenda, women’s political participation, violence against women, sexism. Those things tend to come to the fore when you have strong women’s participation in parliament,” he said.Chungong said he believes the MeToo movement could help boost women’s political representation. He said the movement directly confronts sexism, sexual harassment and gender-based violence, which help keep women from seeking and winning electoral office. 
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Protests against gender violence in Mexico have intensified in recent years amid an increase in killings of women and girls. The killings are often accompanied by sexual assault and sometimes grisly mutilations. Women are expected to express their outrage in a march in Mexico City on Sunday, International Women’s Day. Smaller demonstrations will be held across the country. Women and girls also plan to hold protests on Monday. Mexican women are being urged to skip school, shun housework and stay home from work to show the country what it’s like to go one day without them.Why are they marching?Government statistics show that more than 10 females are slain on average every day in Mexico, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for girls and women. As recently as 2017, an average of seven women were killed each day in Mexico.”The context of violence against women and against girls in Mexico is especially grave,” said Nira Cardenas, coordinator of the gender unit at the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico.In addition to half the population being at high risk of violence, impunity is a major problem. Few reported crimes in Mexico result in convictions.Participation in the annual march on Sunday is expected to be higher than during previous marches as a broader swath of society joins the families of the killed and missing who frequently take to the streets, accompanied by feminists and activists.A woman walks past a sign with a message in Spanish: “Making sexual jokes about your female colleagues is also violence; together we can stop violence against women,” inside a subway station in central Mexico City, March 5, 2020.Who are the victims?A series of recent, highly publicized killings in Mexico has led to more debate and calls for protests against gender violence.The ex-wife of an influential technology entrepreneur was shot to death in November after testifying in a child custody case. A young woman was skinned and disemboweled, allegedly by her boyfriend, in February. Days later, a 7-year-old was kidnapped outside her elementary school and sexually abused; the child’s lifeless body was disposed of in a plastic bag found in an empty lot.The victims shared a history of abuse in their households, and failings by Mexican authorities.A contingent of mothers of victims will march together Sunday in a show of sorority and tears.”We want to give a hug not just to those who are no longer physically here with us, but also to each and all of those women who will soon become part of our family [of victims],” said Araceli Osorio, mother of Lesvy Berlin, who was strangled to death by a boyfriend on the campus of Latin America’s largest university in 2017.What is Mexico doing about the problem?Mexico has aggressive legislation for punishing violent crimes against women. The deficit comes in the application of the law.”Mexico is the country of rights on paper,” said Ana Pecova, director of advocacy group EQUIS Justice for Women.Since 2011, killings of Mexican women that carry signs of hatred for the gender, such as mutilation, have come with a stiffer minimum sentence than regular homicides.Congress increased the femicide sentence again in February, to 65 years, and passed a constitutional amendment last year that allows for preventive detention for those accused of domestic violence for a second time. The majority of women killed in Mexico are targeted by their own partners.Authorities often lack the tools, motivation and capability to investigate crimes, leading family members of victims to pursue the cases themselves. Several mothers complain that their missing girls were initially dismissed as runaways and their killings wrongly ruled suicides.Some protests become rowdy. Why?A women’s protest in February became rowdy, following a pattern of street outrage in the past. A masked protester tried to set fire to a wooden door of the presidential palace while others drenched it with red paint.Destruction of public property has become a mainstay of feminist protests in Mexico City since a small group trashed a bus station, police precinct and a major monument in August in disgust over the city’s bungling of an alleged rape by police of a teenager.The vandalism drew heavy criticism. The vandals argue that women are more important than statues or broken windows, which can be repaired. A woman whose life is cut short by violence never returns, they say.”We ask ourselves all the time: What else can we do?” said Cardenas.What’s next?The grassroots movement for a nationwide strike by women on Monday was inspired in part by similar actions in countries such as Argentina and Chile.”We have to say: Enough already,” said Maria de la Luz Estrada, coordinator of the National Citizens Observatory of Femicide. “We’re calling for the rule of law to work. They have to guarantee the integrity of the lives of every male and female.”Major banks, media companies and law firms have joined the call for women to become “invisible” for a day. The Coparmex business group encouraged its more than 36,000 members across the country to take part, estimating the one-day work stoppage would cost the economy hundreds of thousands of dollars.The Education Ministry issued a last-minute endorsement of the initiative, cognizant that schools depend heavily on female personnel.Participants hope the national dialogue will spur change. Households where men share the chores, they note, have lower incidences of domestic abuse. Prevention is key, but so are consequences. Authorities need more funding to investigate cases, and instruction on how to do so in a timely and empathetic manner.
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Employees at the government-run General Hospital in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, fear the day when the first coronavirus patient checks in.Dr. Jacques Mackenzie told VOA that no measures have been taken to protect the staff at the nation’s largest health facility.“It’s sad to say this but the hospital receives a lot of patients daily and we are not — I repeat — we are not ready, as far as I know, to diagnose a person who has the coronavirus,” he said, adding that they don’t even have the test to determine if someone is infected.“The diagnosis is biological so the laboratory has to confirm the diagnosis. We don’t have the test. We, the medical personnel, have not received any instructions at all with regards to detecting coronavirus cases, nor how to protect ourselves. We are seeing (in the news) all the equipment other countries have to deal with the coronavirus, their doctors, their technicians are well equipped. We, on the other hand, have never received anything that would allow us to face the possible arrival of coronavirus in the country.”The statement was in sharp contrast to the assurances given by Public Health Minister Greta Roy Clement earlier this week during a National Palace press event, where she detailed steps the administration is taking to handle possible coronavirus cases.FILE – Minister of Public Health and Population of Haiti, Marie-Greta Roy Clément, left, and Minister of Health of Brazil Ricardo Barros, center, visit the Dr. Zilda Arns Lieu Hospital in Bon Repos, Port-au-Prince, June 23, 2017.Health Ministry initiativeClement told reporters that health officials had been meeting with professionals at institutions such as the Haitian College of Internal Medicine, and epidemiologists and private hospitals, on how to handle coronavirus patients. She said Haiti would follow the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols being adapted for the country. She said those directives were published online this week for anyone who needs them.For security reasons, “we are not identifying the hospitals which have been designated to receive coronavirus patients, but I will say we have approximately 200 beds available to receive those patients, nationwide at private and public hospitals,” she said.Clement said the National Health Ministry laboratory received coronavirus test kits on Feb. 12, which will be administered to patients suspected of being infected with the virus. She said samples will be taken from the hospital to the national lab for testing.Confirmed Caribbean coronavirus casesThere have been no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Haiti. However, the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti, announced one confirmed case. The French island of Guadeloupe also reported its first confirmed case of the coronavirus this week. There were no other known cases of coronavirus in the Caribbean as of Friday.The health minister told reporters that in addition to the protocols in place, the government would be relying on the experience of health professionals who were trained to handle Ebola and cholera patients, and that measures are already in place to screen all passengers before they board planes for Haiti.Nurse Marie Catherine is disappointed in the lack of communication and support from the Public Health Ministry. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)At the general hospital, nurse Mary Catherine was unaware of the directives Clement spoke about. She told VOA the arrival of any coronavirus patient would be like pouring salt on an open wound.“We are already working under conditions that are not normal for most hospitals and now it’s gotten worse. The Ministry of Public Health has never discussed with us its policy for what to do when we receive the first coronavirus case in Haiti,” she said. “The General Hospital is the first place people come. It’s people’s ‘go to’ place when they are ill. But nothing has been said, nothing has been done about the eventuality of coronavirus.”Haiti’s hospitals were hit hard during the mass anti-government and anti-corruption protests last year, during which roads were barricaded, public sanitation employees stayed home and basic supplies were critically low. As conditions deteriorated, ‘In God’s hands’Lebien Joseph, president of the medical employees union, says the general hospital staff is basically in God’s hands.Lebien Joseph, the General Hospital employers union president prays they will be spared from the Coronavirus. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)“I don’t think God will allow the coronavirus to enter Haiti,” he said. “Our government operates under a fireman mentality — they wait for the disaster to hit and then they start asking if there is water to extinguish the fire. Then, if they don’t see any water they go out and search for it.”Inside the hospital’s laundry room, a small group of women were hand-washing items such as gowns and bed linens. The hospital does not have washing machines and dryers. The women told VOA they are not optimistic about surviving the virus, which currently has a mortality rate in the single digits worldwide.“I believe in God’s grace but believe me, if that virus comes into the country it will kill us all. That’s what I believe,” a female employee said. “I don’t know what others believe, but I believe there’s no way that virus reaches us, and doesn’t destroy us.”In the General Hospital laundry room, linens are washed by hand. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)If that happens under the current circumstances, the hospital employees VOA spoke with agree that they do not plan to stick around.“There are people I’ve spoken to at the hospital who say they plan to leave when the first coronavirus patient arrives, because they don’t want to risk their lives when the government has not given them any tools to face this,” Dr. Mackenzie said.Nurse Marie Catherine says she is not willing to risk her life if the government doesn’t take proactive measures.“A lot of the women, the nurses are saying as soon as the coronavirus patients enters the front door they will be exiting from the back door,” she said “They don’t want to risk their own health if the government health officials don’t act to address the situation.”A female hospital employee agreed.“They have to do something to prepare us to treat patients adequately. Otherwise we will not risk our lives — we don’t want to die alongside the patients,” she said.Patients and vendors stand in front of the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)A male patient undergoing treatment told VOA he is anxious about the possibility of coronavirus patients being admitted.“If I wasn’t sick I’d head home, but I don’t have a choice so I’ll just deal with whatever happens,” he said.The only thing Clement and the people VOA spoke with at the hospital agree on is that “coronavirus is everyone’s problem.”More than 100,000 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus, and 3,400 have died. Most of the deaths were in China, where the pandemic is believed to have originated.VOA’s Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
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The U.S. Thursday slapped sanctions on Nicaragua’s national police and three top police commissioners for what it calls serious human rights abuses against anti-government demonstrators.“The Ortega regime has utilized the Nicaraguan National Police as a tool in its campaign of violent repression against the Nicaraguan people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “Treasury is committed to holding accountable those who seek to silence pro-democracy voices in Nicaragua.”Any assets the police or the three officials (Juan Antonio Valle Valle, Luis Alberto Perez Olivas and Justo Pastor Urbina) have in the United States are frozen and U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with them.The Trump administration accuses Nicaraguan police of using live ammunition against peaceful protesters, organizing death squads, arbitrary killings, and kidnappings. It says some of the victims have been opposition political leaders.Protests erupted in Nicaragua in 2018 over cuts in welfare benefits and soon grew into overall anger against President Daniel Ortega’s government. The opposition accuses Ortega — a one-time leftist hero — of becoming more and more autocratic, like the dictatorship he helped topple in 1979.He has so far refused resign or to call for early elections.Human rights groups say the police crackdown on protesters has killed more than 300 people, a number Nicaraguan officials dispute.
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An international press watchdog is calling on Nicaraguan officials to investigate Tuesday’s attack on reporters covering the funeral of poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal.According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, several reporters were chased, shoved, beaten and robbed during Cardenal’s funeral at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.Local news outlets say the unidentified attackers, clad in red-and-black bandanas — the colors of President Daniel Ortega’s ruling Sandinista party — shouted slogans praising the hard-line ruler.Supporters of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega shout slogans against anti-government people during the funeral mass for Nicaraguan poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, March 3, 2020.Serious injuriesJennifer Ortiz, director of digital outlet Nicaragua Investiga, said police officers outside the cathedral stood down as the violence unfolded.Police did not respond to requests for comment.“We are a small independent media, and they leave us totally defenseless,” Ortiz told CPJ. “We are outraged by how journalism has been attacked, and we are worried about what might happen in an electoral context.”The assailants punched and kicked Ortiz’s staff reporter, Hans Lawrence, before stealing his phone, tripod and microphones.Lawrence, who is epileptic, was vomiting blood after the attack and remains under medical evaluation.Ortega supporters also beat and robbed Leonor Álvarez of national daily newspaper La Prensa, and David Quintana of Boletin Ecológico, who was also hospitalized briefly.Ongoing violenceThe attack came just days after the FILE – Nicaraguan poet and Catholic priest Ernesto Cardenal sits after he was awarded the Legion of Honor order during a reception in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 30, 2013.The clampdown has drawn international condemnation from the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Organization of American States, which, like demonstrators calling for Ortega’s resignation, compare the president to the dictator he helped to overthrow.Ortega’s government calls the uprising, which has claimed 320 lives, part of a U.S.-financed coup attempt.Cardenal, who died of heart and kidney failure in Managua on Sunday at the age of 95, once supported the Sandinista revolution before distancing himself from Ortega, becoming one of the president’s most trenchant critics.In 1983, he was one of three Nicaraguan priests suspended from the priesthood over his support for the Sandinistas. Pope Francis lifted Cardenal’s suspension in February 2019.Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranks Nicaragua 114th out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, a 24-point drop from its 2018 ranking.
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Javier Perez de Cuellar, the two-term United Nations secretary-general who brokered a historic cease-fire between Iran and Iraq in 1988 and who in later life came out of retirement to help re-establish democracy in his Peruvian homeland, has died. He was 100.His son, Francisco Perez de Cuellar, said his father died Wednesday at home of natural causes. Current U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Peruvian diplomat a “personal inspiration.”“Mr. Perez de Cuellar’s life spanned not only a century but also the entire history of the United Nations, dating back to his participation in the first meeting of the General Assembly in 1946,” said Guterres in a statement late Wednesday.Perez de Cuellar’s death ends a long diplomatic career that brought him full circle from his first posting as secretary at the Peruvian embassy in Paris in 1944 to his later job as Peru’s ambassador to France.When he began his tenure as U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, 1982, he was a little-known Peruvian who was a compromise candidate at a time when the United Nations was held in low esteem.Serving as U.N. undersecretary-general for special political affairs, he emerged as the dark horse candidate in December 1981 after a six-week election deadlock between U.N. chief Kurt Waldheim and Tanzanian Foreign Minister Salim Ahmed Salim.Once elected, he quickly made his mark.Shaking the UN houseDisturbed by the United Nations’ dwindling effectiveness, he sought to revitalize the world body’s faulty peacekeeping machinery.His first step was to “shake the house” with a highly critical report in which he warned: “We are perilously near to a new international anarchy.”With the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and with conflicts raging in Afghanistan and Cambodia and between Iran and Iraq, he complained to the General Assembly that U.N. resolutions “are increasingly defied or ignored by those that feel themselves strong enough to do so.”During his decade as U.N. chief, Perez de Cuellar would earn a reputation more for diligent, quiet diplomacy than charisma.“He has an amiable look about him that people mistake for through and through softness,” said an aide, who described him as tough and courageous.Quiet diplomacyFaced early in his first term with a threatened U.S. cutoff of funds in the event of Israel’s ouster, he worked behind the scenes to stop Arab efforts to deprive the Jewish state of its General Assembly seat. There was muted criticism from the Arab camp that he had given the Americans the right of way in the Middle East.In dealing with human rights issues, he chose the path of “discreet diplomacy.” He refrained from publicly rebuking Poland for refusing to allow his special representative into the country to investigate allegations of human rights violations during the Warsaw regime’s 1982 crackdown on the Solidarity trade union movement.He came back for a second term after a groundswell of support for his candidacy, including a conversation with President Ronald Reagan, who — in the words of the U.N. chief’s spokesman — expressed “his personal support for the secretary-general.”“Just about all the Western countries have told him they’d like to see him stay on,” a Western diplomatic source said at the time. “There is no visible alternative.”Unlike his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim who was regarded as a “workaholic” and who spent long hours in his office, Perez de Cuellar liked to get away from it all. “He is very jealous of his own privacy,” a close aide said.“When I can, I read everything but United Nations documents,” Perez de Cuellar confided to a reporter. Once on a flight to Moscow, an aide observed that “in the midst of it all, the secretary-general had time for splendid literature.”Trilingual, Perez de Cuellar read French, English and Spanish literature.Lebanon hostagesPerez de Cuellar spent much of his second term working behind the scenes on the hostage issue, resulting in the release of Westerners held in Lebanon, including the last and longest held American hostage, journalist Terry Anderson, who was freed Dec. 4, 1991.All told, Perez de Cuellar’s diplomacy helped bring an end to fighting in Cambodia and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.Shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 1992, he walked out of U.N. headquarters to his waiting limousine, no longer the secretary-general, but having attained his final goal after hours of tough negotiations: a peace pact between the Salvadoran government and leftist rebels.“Mr. Perez de Cuellar played a crucial role in a number of diplomatic successes, including the independence of Namibia, an end to the Iran-Iraq War, the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, the peace accord in Cambodia and, in his very last days in office, a historic peace agreement in El Salvador,” Guterres said.Became diplomat 1944Javier Perez de Cuellar was born in Lima on Jan. 19, 1920. His father a “modest businessman,” was an accomplished amateur pianist, according to the former secretary-general. The family traced its roots to the Spanish town of Cuellar, north of Segovia.In Peru, the family belonged to the educated rather than the landowning class.He received a law degree from Lima’s Catholic University in 1943 and joined the Peruvian diplomatic service a year later. He would go on to postings in France, Britain, Bolivia and Brazil before returning to Lima in 1961, where he served in a number of high-level ministry posts.He was ambassador to Switzerland and then became Peru’s first ambassador to the Soviet Union while concurrently accredited to Poland. Other assignments included the post of secretary-general of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry and chief delegate to the United Nations.After leaving the U.N., Perez de Cuellar made an unsuccessful bid for Peru’s presidency in 1995 against the authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori, whose 10-year autocratic regime crumbled in November 2000 amid corruption scandals.At the age of 80, Perez de Cuellar emerged from retirement in Paris and returned to Peru to take on the mantle of foreign minister and cabinet chief for provisional President Valentin Paniagua.His impeccable democratic credentials lent credibility to an interim government whose mandate was to deliver free and fair elections. Eight months later, newly elected President Alejandro Toledo asked him to serve as Ambassador to France.Between foreign assignments, he was professor of diplomatic law at the Academia Diplomatica del Peru and of international relations at the Peruvian Academy for Air Warfare.At UN in 1975Transferring to the United Nations in 1975, he was appointed by Waldheim as the secretary-general’s special representative in Cyprus. During his two years on the divided island he helped to promote intercommunal peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.After a brief stint as Peru’s ambassador to Venezuela, he returned to the United Nations in 1979 as undersecretary-general for special political affairs. In that capacity, he undertook delicate diplomatic missions to Indochina and Afghanistan.Perez de Cuellar resigned his U.N. post in May 1981, just before the election campaign for U.N. secretary-general heated up, and returned to the Peruvian diplomatic service.President Fernando Belaunde Terry recommended Perez de Cuellar for nomination as U.N. secretary-general.Perez de Cuellar married the former Marcela Temple. He had a son, Francisco, and a daughter, Cristina, by a previous marriage.His funeral will be Friday.
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President Nicolas Maduro wants Venezuelan women to have many children as a way to boost the country, which has seen millions of people flee in recent years to escape its economic crisis.Maduro made the exhortation during a televised event Tuesday evening for a government program promoting various birth methods.”God bless you for giving the country six little boys and girls,” the socialist president told a woman at the event. “To give birth, then, to give birth, all women to have six children, all. Let the homeland grow!”The comments drew criticism from human rights activists and others who noted Venezuelans already are struggling to provide food, clothes and health care for their families.”It is irresponsible, on the part of a president of the Republic, to encourage women to have six children simply to make a homeland, when there is a homeland that does not guarantee children their lives,” said Oscar Misle, founder of CECODAP, a group that defends the rights of young people.FILE – Pastor, 3, and Josue, 4, both of whom have been hospitalized in the past for malnutrition according to their mother Gregoria Hernandez, walk outside their house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 28, 2019.The country’s economic collapse, coupled with its deep political divisions, led more than 4.5 million Venezuelans to emigrate since 2015, according to the United Nations.The U.N. World Food Program also recently said that 9.3 million people — nearly one-third of Venezuela’s population — are unable to meet their basic dietary needs.”You have to be very cynical to ask that we have six children,” said Magdalena de Machado, a housewife picking through scraggly vegetables at a street market in the center of Caracas for making soup for her sons, ages 2 and 4.”Only two days a week we can serve some meat and chicken. For years we were late having children. We had them when we thought we were better off, but in the last year we’ve been buying less and less food,” she said.De Machado and others also questioned how women could be expected to increase births amid the deterioration in the country’s health care, both for adults and children.A report by Humans Rights Watch in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concluded last year that the health system in Venezuela has “totally collapsed.” Among other problems, it cited rising levels of maternal and child mortality as well as the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
 
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Victims of clerical sex abuse have expressed skepticism over a Vatican investigative commission that will collect statements and information about abuse in Mexico, though most said they would meet with Pope Francis’ investigators.
    
“Only by speaking with them can you demand results,” said Biani Lopez-Antunez, who was abused by a Legion of Christ school director in Cancun between the ages of 8 and 10 years old. “The results of this visit must be measured only based on the facts, the reports, because I’m already tired of the fake action that operates at all levels of the Church.”
    
The Vatican announced Tuesday that two investigators, Charles Scicluna, archbishop of Malta and deputy secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Jordi Bertomeu, will be in Mexico City March 20-27. They will meet with bishops, leaders of religious orders and victims who want to speak with them. They promise confidentiality.
    
Mexico, which has the second highest number of Catholics in the world, has been accumulating cases of abuse and cover-ups for years. Meanwhile more and more victims like Lopez-Antunez are speaking up in the face of Vatican claims of “zero tolerance” to say that they are still waiting for justice.
    
The Mexican Episcopal Conference says the commission is coming at its request. It is made up by the same church officials who went to Chile in 2018 to investigate one case and returned with 2,600 pages of statements from more than 60 victims. It led Pope Francis to ask forgiveness and led to legal action.
    
“There has to be intervention from some other external authority to determine criminal responsibility because if it is only the ecclesiastic commission, it’s very difficult for something to happen,”said Alberto Athie, a former Mexican priest who has campaigned for more than 20 years for victims of clerical abuse. If not, the commission could become just another example of the Vatican going through the motions but not getting to the bottom of it.
    
For that reason, Athie believes a proposal before the Mexican Senate to create an independent investigative commission is critical, because it could “reconstruct the truth and turn over to the proper authorities all of those responsible,” including the abusers and those who covered up their actions.
    
The number of victims in Mexico is unknown.
    
The best known case in Mexico is that of Rev. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ religious order. The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after revelations that Maciel, sexually abused dozens of his seminarians, fathered at least three children and built a secretive, cult-like order to hide his double life.
    
The Mexican Episcopal Conference, which scheduled a news conference for Tuesday to announce the investigative mission, said in January that it was investigating 271 priests for abuse in the past decade – 155 of whom have been referred to prosecutors – but it did not provide a number of victims.
    
Jesus Romero Colin, a psychologist and director of Inscide, a nongovernmental organization that supports victims of sexual abuse, said there could be thousands. Romero Colin himself was abused by a priest in his church when he was 11 years old.
    
“In my case, there were 20 victims and I was the only one who came forward,” he said. “Of 50 victims that have come to our organization, only two filed formal complaints and there are priests who abused 100 or 130 victims.”
    
Romero Colin’s case is an exception. His abuser, Carlos Lopez Valdez was the first priest convicted in Mexico of pederasty and is currently serving a 63-year prison sentence.
    
He said he will meet with the investigators. “The important thing is that the survivors have a direct line to the Vatican, we skip all the intermediaries,” he said.
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A right-of-center president took office in Uruguay on Sunday, promising to crack down on crime and tighten government finances after a 15-year string of left-leaning governments.Luis Lacalle Pou, a 46-year-old surfing enthusiast and son of a former president, narrowly won the election in November in his second try for the top office.Lacalle Pou thanked outgoing President Tabaré Vázquez who gave him the presidential sash.“The country has built a democracy with this ceremony,” he said, celebrating the seventh presidential change since the restoration of democracy in 1985.Lacalle Pou inherits a country of nearly 3.4 million people that had grown steadily under the outgoing Broad Front government, but rising crime in recent years dented its popularity and economists have grown concerned about a rising fiscal deficit that reached 4.9% of gross domestic product last year.In his inaugural address, the new leader promised “to promote what was done well (and) correct what was done badly.”Lacalle Pou, who has promised to cap government spending, said he wanted reduce the costs of production and services “to recover national competitiveness.”He said the country faces “an emergency” of insecurity, adding that “the enormous majority of Uruguayans feel unprotected.” He campaigned on calls to bolster the country’s security forces and toughening sentences.“In the interior of the country we used to sleep with the door open…. Even vehicles were left with doors and windows open and the key in the ignition. But lately the houses are all fenced…. We hope that this government takes some measures and can change that,” said Natalia Cardozo, a 37-year-old teacher who was participating on horseback in the inaugural; day parade.Lacalle Pou, who spent many years in Uruguay’s congress, grew up in an intensely political family. He father Luis Lacalle Herrera was president from 1990 to 1995 and his mother, Julia Pou, was a senator. His great-grandfather Luis Alberto de Herrera was a major figure in the National Party.He will have to depend on an ideologically diverse four-party coalition to get his programs through Congress.
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Socialist hardliners in Venezuela opened fire during a march headed by Juan Guaido, injuring a 16-year-old demonstrator and adding to tensions in the country as the opposition leader seeks to revive his campaign to oust Nicolas Maduro. A photo of the confrontation provided exclusively to The Associated Press shows a masked man brandishing a pistol pointed toward a group of opposition activists, including Guaido, who can be seen staring down the unidentified man. The confusing incident Saturday in the central city of Barquisimeto was believed to be the first time pro-government vigilantes known as colectivos had aimed a weapon at Guaido, whom the U.S. and more than 50 other countries recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader following Maduro’s re-election in 2018 in a race marred by irregularities. The city’s former mayor and opposition activist Alfredo Ramos said the marchers led by Guaido were “ambushed” by about 200 colectivo members and government security forces loyal to Maduro. Ramos said worse bloodshed was avoided because the unidentified man did not open fire at that moment. Marchers scatterBut later, as the crowd swelled, a 16-year-old demonstrator was shot in the leg and several others were roughed up as the colectivos harassed participants, in some cases stealing their cellphones. Amid the sound of bullets firing into the air, the marchers quickly scattered. “Courage and strength,” Guaido said in a conversation with the injured activist that was videotaped by his aides while their caravan headed back to Caracas. “We’re going to achieve freedom for our country.” The AP was not present at the rally and was unable to verify the lawmakers’ account. There was no immediate comment from the Maduro government. Dimitris Pantoulas, a Caracas political analyst, said the incident underscored the forceful role being played in Venezuela by the colectivos. As political turmoil has swept over Venezuela the past year, armed groups loyal to Maduro have been increasingly deployed by a government determined to resist domestic opposition and mounting international pressure, Pantoulas said. Trouble ahead?”This is a tactic by the government to use violence by colectivos to intimidate its opponents,” said Pantoulas. “Every day the collectivos are feeling stronger inside the Maduro government. One day, the situation could easily get out of hand and lead to bloodshed.” While colectivos in the past have been subordinate to Maduro, Pantoulas cautioned that as the embattled leader’s grip on power has weakened, some have strayed and operate independently or are aligned with other Chavista revolution bosses. Saturday’s event marked Guaido’s first public trip outside Caracas since he returned from an international tour to rally support, including a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, who invited Guaido as a special guest to his annual State of the Union address. Guaido was met by rowdy Maduro supporters when he returned to Venezuela. Guaido, surrounded by security, pushed his way through the crowd as it pounded on his departing vehicle. His uncle, who returned on the same flight, was jailed on suspicion of bringing explosives into the country, charges Guaido called a threat against him. 
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Officials in Ecuador on Saturday confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the South American nation, while Mexico reported two more cases and Brazil one more.
Ecuador’s Health Minister Catalina Andramuno Zeballos said a more-than-70-year-old Ecuadoran woman who lives in Spain arrived in the country on Feb. 14 showing no symptoms of illness.
“In the following days she began to feel badly with a fever,” Andramuno said at a news conference, adding that she was taken to a medical center. The National Institute of Public Health and Investigation in Ecuador confirmed the virus.
The deputy minister of health, Julio Lopez said that the patient’s condition was “critical.”
It was the second case in South America, following a Brazilian case reported on Wednesday. The Sao Paulo state health department reported another Brazilian case later on Saturday _ a person who had recently visited Italy.
Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno sent out a tweet urging people to stay calm, and the Interior Ministry announced it was barring mass gatherings in the cities of Guayaquil – where the infected woman was located – and Babahoyo.People wearing face masks wearing masks wait for the arrival of their relatives at the Mariscal Sucre International Airport, in Quito, Ecuador, Feb. 29, 2020.Mexico’s Health Department said late Friday that a new case had been confirmed in Mexico City, adding to the first two confirmed cases announced earlier that day. One of those was also in the capital, and the other in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Miguel Riquelme Solis, the governor of the northern border state of Coahuila, said Saturday that federal health officials had confirmed a fourth case, in the city of Torreon: a 20-year-old woman who traveled to Europe, including Milan, Italy, in January and February and returned to Mexico in recent days.
“Two days later she began to have symptoms,” Riquelme told Milenio television.
State Health Secretary Roberto Bernal said the woman was in good health. She and family members were under a 14-day quarantine, and two other young people who traveled with her had been in contact with authorities.
Mexican health officials said the country is not currently facing a national emergency over the virus.
Assistant Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell said that as long as the country is seeing only isolated cases there’s no need to take “extreme measures such as canceling mass events.”
Mexico was ground zero for the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 virus, also called swine flu, and many in the country have vivid memories of that time.
Back then many stayed home as much as possible and avoided gatherings out of fear. Shops, restaurants and other businesses closed. In the capital, streets were eerily quiet compared with the usual chaotic traffic.
So far there has been no repeat of that sort of fear.
There were reports of increased purchases of items like face masks and hand sanitizer, and the National Alliance of Small Businesses said shortages of those items would likely cause prices to rise.
The Roman Catholic Bishops Conference in Mexico said parishioners should avoid physical contact during the ritual exchange of wishes for peace and said communion wafers should be placed in Mass-goers’ hands instead of their mouths.    
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Mexican health authorities announced Friday they have confirmed the first two cases of coronavirus in Mexico.A man in Mexico City who recently visited Italy tested positive Friday, and another patient is confirmed in the northern state of Sinaloa. Brazil is the only other country that has coronavirus in Latin America.The coronavirus emerged in at least five other countries Friday: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand and Nigeria.The case in Nigeria, detected in the economic capital Lagos, is the first case in sub-Saharan Africa and the third to be confirmed in Africa. Nigerian officials said the case involved an Italian citizen who entered the country this week.In Azerbaijan, a Russian citizen who had arrived from Iran has been confirmed with the virus, and in Belarus an Iranian student who arrived from Azerbaijan tested positive.Lithuania also announced Friday, a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italy tested positive.New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case Friday, saying a recent arrival from Iran had tested positive.People wearing protective masks walk on street in Minsk, Belarus, Feb. 28, 2020. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand and Nigeria have reported their first cases of coronavirus.In the Netherlands, first case was confirmed late Thursday and another Friday, both had recently traveled in Northern Italy.The number of new coronavirus cases has dropped in the center of the outbreak, China, but has risen in South Korea — the hardest-hit country outside China.China’s National Health Commission reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths early Friday — the lowest number of new cases in more than a month.But the number in South Korea reached 2,337, with 571 new cases and 16 deaths. Most of the cases are in Daegu, the South’s fourth largest city.At least 46 countries are reporting cases, and governments in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are taking some extraordinary steps to contain the virus.The United States and South Korea called off joint military drills. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered schools to close at least through March.A sign advertising protective face masks is marked “Sold out” inside a store in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 28, 2020.About 1,000 people were in quarantine in Germany’s most populous state, as the number of confirmed cases in Europe’s biggest economy exceeded 50.California health officials said they were monitoring 8,400 people for symptoms after their arrival on domestic flights.Australian doctors warned the public health system could be overwhelmed in the event of a pandemic, a day after the government launched its emergency response program.As of Friday, there were more than 83,670 coronavirus cases worldwide, and more than 2,865 deaths. Most of the cases are in China. 
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to open the door for foreign nationals to pursue civil rights cases in American courts, declining to revive a lawsuit by a slain Mexican teenager’s family against the U.S. Border Patrol agent who shot him on Mexican soil from across the border in Texas.The court ruled 5-4 to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit against the agent, Jesus Mesa, who shot 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca in the face in the 2010 incident. The family sued in federal court seeking monetary damages, accusing Mesa of violating the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unjustified deadly force and the Fifth Amendment right to due process.
The court, with the five conservative justices in the majority, refused to allow people who are not in the United States at the time of a cross-border incident to file civil rights lawsuits in federal court.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for majority, said the case presented “foreign relations and national security implications” and noted that Congress should decide whether such lawsuits can be permitted, backing the position taken by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The incident took place in June 2010 on the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Mesa did not face criminal charges, though Mexico condemned the shooting. The family also sued the federal government over the shooting but that was dismissed early in the litigation.
The ruling was issued at a time of high tensions involving the southern border, where Trump is pursuing construction of a wall separating the United States and Mexico.
The dispute hinged on whether the family, despite Hernandez having died on Mexican soil, could seek monetary damages against what they call a “rogue” agent for alleged civil rights violations.
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The online retailing giant is opening its first cashier-less supermarket, the latest sign that Amazon is serious about shaking up the $800 billion grocery industry.At the new store, opening Tuesday in Seattle, shoppers can grab milk or eggs and walk out without checking out or opening their wallets. Shoppers scan a smartphone app to enter the store. Cameras and sensors track what’s taken off shelves. Items are charged to an Amazon account after leaving.Called Amazon Go Grocery, the new store is an expansion of its 2-year-old chain of Amazon Go convenience stores. At 10,400 square feet, the supermarket is more than five times the size of the smaller stores, and stocks more items beyond the sodas and sandwiches found at Amazon Go. The new market stocks fresh baked bread, blood oranges, butternut squash and other food to whip up dinner or stock the fridge.Amazon is not new to groceries. It made a splash in 2017 when it bought Whole Foods and its 500 stores. It’s also been expanding its online grocery delivery service.An Amazon Prime delivery truck travels on Interstate highway in Virginia. (photo: Diaa Bekheet)But it’s still far behind rival Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, which has more than 4,700 stores. Walmart has also found success with its online grocery service, that lets shoppers buy online and then pickup at stores.Amazon plans to open another type of grocery store in Los Angeles sometime this year, but the company said it won’t use the cashier-less technology at that location and has kept other details under wraps.At the new Seattle store, families can shop together with just one phone scanning everyone in. Anything they grab from the shelf will be added to the tab of the person who signed them in. But shopper’s shouldn’t help a stranger reach something from the top shelf: Amazon warns that grabbing an item for someone else means you’ll be charged for it.While cashier-less stores remove a major annoyance for customers, waiting in long lines to pay, it also takes away parts of supermarket shopping that some customers may miss. There’s no one to bag groceries at Amazon Go Grocery. Instead, Amazon gives out reusable bags so shoppers can fill them as they shop. And there’s no deli counter, butcher or fishmonger. Instead, packaged sliced ham, steaks and salmon fillets are sold in refrigerated shelves.Other retailers and startups have been racing to create similar cashier-less technology. Earlier this month, for example, 7-Eleven said it is testing a cashier-less store inside its Irving, Texas, offices.Amazon declined to say if it plans to open more cashier-less grocery stores. Since it launched its first Amazon Go store in 2018, the Seattle-based company has opened about 25 of them in big cities, such as Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
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Haiti’s government canceled Mardi Gras celebrations Sunday in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in the aftermath of a gunfight between protesting off-duty national police officers and members of the army that left two dead. At least two others were wounded.”In order to avoid a bloodbath, the government would like to inform the Haitian people and Carnival revelers that we have decided to cancel Carnival festivities in Port-au-Prince,” said a statement sent to local journalists by presidential press secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis.  The unsigned statement, stamped with a government seal and sent through WhatsApp, also included an appeal for calm.  Sunday’s protest turned violent when off-duty police officers, allegedly angry over the firings last week of their colleagues and the coordinator of the union effort, faced off with members of the armed forces near the National Palace.  The Haitian Armed Forces condemned the gunfight Monday.”We bitterly deplore these acts,” a statement sent to reporters said, “which can only be the work of individuals who want to destroy their own country.”The protesting officers issued their own press statement condemning the violence, which they blamed on “bad actors.””The National Police Union (SPNH) condemns not only the violence, but also the fact that these actions were conducted by people of ill will, pretending to be police officers and aiming to discredit the legitimate effort to unionize the force,” the statement said.Burning tires block a main thoroughfare in the Lalue neighborhood of Port au Prince, Haiti, Feb. 24, 2020. (Matiado Vilme/VOA Creole)Members of the National Police Force, PNH, have been protesting in Port-au-Prince and other major cities on a weekly basis since last year, demanding that they be allowed to form a union.They say they cannot afford to live on $19,000 Haitian gourdes (about $200) a year, and decry that they have no health or life insurance.Last week, angry protesters burned down some of the wooden stands on the Carnival route after officials fired five of their colleagues involved in the unionizing effort. The officers told VOA Creole they should not be counted on to provide security during Carnival if their commanding officers don’t care enough about them to allow them to form a union.  In the lead-up to Carnival, many residents expressed concern about whether there were adequate security measures in place to protect those participating in the popular annual event. “It’s important that when there is a problem, officials address it and try to understand what’s behind it and take measures to resolve it,” government lawyer Camille Leblanc told VOA Creole.   He said although the police have the right to ask for a union, they should not use violence to do so.”We cannot accept a society where people with weapons try to impose their point of view on the nation,” Leblanc said.Police responseAbelson Gros Negre, spokesperson for the police union movement, rejected the accusation that police were responsible for the violence.”We distance ourselves from all violence and malfeasance being done. We are not behind it. Our focus is forming a union to protect the rights of our police officers, which is our constitutional guarantee,” Negre said.  The police are asking officials to rescind their decision to fire five officers last week — among them Yannick Joseph, coordinator of the union movement. In Port-au-Prince on Monday was a familiar, unwelcome sight — makeshift roadblocks and burning tires.”We support the police officers, and we stand by them,” a resident told VOA Creole. “We’re waiting for (President) Jovenel Moise to leave, and we also don’t support the army. We don’t recognize its existence,”But other residents said they were tired of the protests.”Over the past three months, look at how many people have lost their jobs. They (protesters) couldn’t even wait another two months! They’re back at it in the streets. It’s demoralizing,” a visibly frustrated man told VOA Creole. “Haitian people open your eyes. This isn’t being done for the good of the country. I don’t even believe there’s a police problem.”Normil Rameau, director-general of Haiti’s National Police Force, talks to reporters in Port au Prince, Haiti, Feb. 24, 2020. (Matiado Vilme/VOA Creole)During a midday press conference Monday, Normil Rameau, director-general of the national police force, called the protest “illegitimate.””I came from the heart of the police force, just like every other police officer. Therefore, every officer’s problem is the problem of the director-general,” Rameau said. “By the same token, the commanding officers of the force also share this burden. I want the men and women of the police force to know their demands are simply illegitimate. That is why, since I was charged with leading the police force, I have addressed their demands with central command officials who have started working on improving their living and working conditions.”Rameau called on protesters to avoid “infiltrators,” and reminded them that the force is mandated to remain nonpartisan.”Our preference and allegiance is to protect the Haitian people, to (adhere to) the laws of the republic and (respect) the regulations of the national police force,” Rameau said.He vowed to restore law and order across the nation as soon as possible, and offered condolences to the fallen officers’ families.Support from MoiseMoise tweeted Sunday that he is committed to continuing to support the PNH.”Every day that passes, the police should become stronger, more professional. When the police force is more professional, the people reap the benefits. That is why I’m gifting the institution several new armored vehicles to use during their operations.”  Moise also tweeted that he had given orders to increase the line of credit available for police officers, as well as the limit on their debit cards.It is unclear whether Carnival festivities will go on as planned in the northern cities of Cape Haitian and Gonaives.
 
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One of every three people in Venezuela is struggling to put enough food on the table to meet minimum nutrition requirements as the nation’s severe economic contraction and political upheaval persists, according to a study published Sunday by the U.N. World Food Program.A nationwide survey based on data from 8,375 questionnaires reveals a startling picture of the large number of Venezuelans surviving off a diet consisting largely of tubers and beans as hyperinflation renders many salaries worthless.A total of 9.3 million people – roughly one-third of the population – are moderately or severely food insecure, said the World Food Program’s study, which was conducted at the invitation of the Venezuelan government. Food insecurity is defined as an individual being unable to meet basic dietary needs.The study describes food insecurity as a nationwide concern, though certain states like Delta Amacuro, Amazonas and Falcon had especially high levels. Even in more prosperous regions, one in five people are estimated to be food insecure.“The reality of this report shows the gravity of the social, economic and political crisis in our country,” said Miguel Pizarro, a Venezuelan opposition leader.Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been largely reluctant in recent years to invite international organizations to provide assessments of the nation’s humanitarian ordeal, though the World Food Program said it was granted “full independence” and collected data throughout the country “without any impediment or obstruction.”“WFP looks forward to a continuation of its dialogue with the Venezuelan government and discussions that will focus on the way forward to provide assistance for those who are food insecure,” the agency said in a statement.There was no immediate response to the findings by Maduro’s government.The survey found that 74% of families have adopted “food-related coping strategies,” such as reducing the variety and quality of food they eat. Sixty percent of households reported cutting portion sizes in meals, 33% said they had accepted food as payment for work and 20% reported selling family assets to cover basic needs.The issue appears to be one that is less about the availability of food and more about the difficulty in obtaining it. Seven in 10 reported that food could always be found but said it is difficult to purchase because of high prices. Thirty-seven percent reported they had lost their job or business as a result of Venezuela’s severe economic contraction.Venezuela has been in the throes of a political and humanitarian crisis that has led over 4.5 million people to flee in recent years. Maduro has managed to keep his grip on power despite a push by opposition leader Juan Guaidó to remove him from office and mounting U.S. sanctions.Maduro frequently blames the Trump administration for his nation’s woes, and his government has urged the International Criminal Court to open an investigation, alleging that the financial sanctions are causing suffering and even death. The nation’s struggles to feed citizens and provide adequate medical care predate U.S. sanctions on the Venezuelan government.In addition to food, the survey also looked at interruptions in access to electricity and water, finding that four in 10 households experience daily power cuts. Four in 10 also reported recurrent interruptions in water service, further complicating daily life.Noting that the survey was done in July through September, Carolina Fernández, a Venezuelan rights advocate who works with vulnerable women, said she believes the situation has deteriorated even more. While it was once possible for many families to survive off remittances sent by relatives abroad, she said, that has become more difficult as much of the economy is dollarized and prices rise.“Now it’s not enough to have one person living abroad,” she said.Fernández said food insecurity is likely to have an enduring impact on a generation of young Venezuelans going hungry during formative years.“We’re talking about children who are going to have long-term problems because they’re not eating adequately,” she said.Those who are going hungry include people like Yonni Gutiérrez, 56, who was standing outside a restaurant that sells roasted chickens in Caracas on Sunday.The unemployed man approached the restaurant’s front door whenever a customer left with a bag of food, hoping they might share something. He said he previously had been able to scrape by helping unload trucks at a market, but the business that employed him closed.“Sometimes, with a little luck, I get something good,” he said of his restaurant stakeout.
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When dancer Camila Prins entered Sao Paulo’s Carnival parade grounds, a costume of feathers clinging to her sinuous body, she fulfilled a dream of feminine beauty nearly three decades old.Prins says she first realized she wanted to be a woman at a Carnival party at age 11, when, like the other boys, she was allowed to dress like a girl as part of the burlesque festivities. Now, in the final minutes of Saturday, she became the first transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in either of the renowned Carnival parades put on in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.Prins, 40, was hand-picked to be “godmother” of the Colorado do Bras samba school’s drum section, an iconic role fought over by dozens of models and TV celebrities. Her duty was to dance infectiously for 65 minutes in front of the drummers, using her legs to drive their rhythm while judges assessed the school’s parade.“Gorgeous women wanted to be here. I’m very excited because this shows we can be anywhere. We can be godmother of the drummers, we can be owners of a samba school,” Prins told The Associated Press before the parade. “Soon they will see many other transgender girls, who will find it easier than I did.”Transgender godmother Camila Prins from the Colorado do Bras samba school performs during a Carnival parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 23, 2020. Prins fulfilled a dream nearly three decades old.Samba league’s bold decisionColorado do Bras, which rose to Sao Paulo’s top samba league only two years ago, made a bold decision in picking Prins for the role, despite Brazil’s Carnival being a party at which few things have never been tried.Transgender people remain something of a taboo among Brazilians, even in Sao Paulo, the country’s most cosmopolitan city and host to the world’s largest gay pride parade. Brazil has more killings of transvestites and transgender people than any country in the world. In 2019, 124 were killed, 21 of them in Sao Paulo state.As godmother of the drum section, Prins teamed up with a drum queen who has a similar role, and together they worked to dazzle fans in the Sambadrome bleachers with their beauty and sex appeal. Prins said she was counting on her penetrating brown eyes, long blond hair, strong legs, open smile and imposing breasts to help win points from the judges.Colorado do Bras finished the 2019 parade in 11th place, only two spots above the cutoff for being relegated back to a lower league. Directors of the samba school decided to try for something different this year, since the group has fewer resources than richer samba schools. Its floats and costumes were clearly less luxurious than the main challengers for the title.Camila Prins sits in a chair as she has her makeup done before performing for Colorado do Bras samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 22, 2020. Her costume is ready on a nearby bed.A new normalKeila Simpson, president of Brazil’s National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals, was happy Prins secured her prominent Carnival role, and said their community aims to make cases like hers the new normal.“We have to be proud of Camila and hope her symbolic message allows us to think of reducing violence against trans people. Why can people celebrate her at the Sambadrome while trans people on the street are subject to violence?” Simpson said. “We don’t have data, but there are many violent cases against us during Carnival. Because there’s more of us outside, there’s more attacks.”Sao Paulo is trying to root out persecution of LGBT people during Carnival, and this year set up 20 tents spread among major street parties to handle cases of violence against the community. Psychologists, police officers and social workers are on hand until Wednesday for revelers who are victimized.English teacher Alessandra Salvador, a transgender woman who encouraged revelers to come to the city hall tent at the LGBT street party Minhoqueens, said she was excited by Prins’ selection.“I don’t even watch parades that much, but this year I will when she is on,” Salvador said. “It is good to see one of us being talked up. We don’t get it so often. If we don’t get that in Carnival, we won’t get it anywhere else.”Long road to big leaguesIt’s been a long road for Prins to reach the big leagues. She has worked as a professional dancer for 20 years and, though she lives in a small town in Switzerland with her husband, practices her steps at home all year and listens to samba incessantly. As Carnival nears, she splits her dance routine with ab workouts and squats at a gym, then makes her annual return to Brazil.Prins’ first time dancing as a samba school’s godmother came in 2018, in the second division of Sao Paulo’s Carnival league. And it wasn’t easy.“Many people turned their backs, because they thought I shouldn’t be there. They thought it was a role for a woman,” Prins said. “Little by little I won them over with a lot of respect and true dancing.”Prins said her friends in Switzerland feared for her because of the increase in violence against transgender people, and because of the rise of far-right political groups in Brazil. She said she was worried about an increase in hateful comments aimed at LGBT people since President Jair Bolsonaro took office Jan. 1, 2019, but she planned to keep her smile and march on.Just before midnight, when Colorado do Bras finally started its parade, a TV Globo reporter approached a tearful Prins in front of her drummers. She was already the most talked about of all 2,200 members of the samba school, even more than eight young topless women dressed as “goddesses of the sea.” “I feel so blessed this is happening. I came here to hold my banner and dance samba to the face of prejudice, for all the LGBT community,” she said. “Trans girls, I am sure your day will come, too. I am just the first, many more of you will follow.”
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A violent police strike in northeastern Brazil has shed light on dissatisfaction among cops elsewhere in the country, with some forces threatening to protest as rowdy Carnival celebrations start.The strike by military police demanding higher salaries in the state of Ceara, which led to a senator being shot, is a headache for President Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch supporter of police forces who has pledged to curb violent crime.“Of course, police strikes could spread,” said lawmaker Guilherme da Cunha of the state of Minas Gerais, where police obtained a 42% salary increase this year after threatening to strike. “From the moment people who have a monopoly on firearms discover the strength it has, there is a risk.”Violent crime increasesIn Ceara, violent crime has risen sharply during the police strike, with at least 88 people killed over three days, according to online news site G1, citing state officials. Bolsonaro has sent hundreds of national guard forces and 2,500 soldiers to maintain order.During the strike, Sen. Cid Gomes was shot in the chest as he tried to drive a backhoe through a police protest. He is in stable condition. Earlier that day, masked officers forced businesses to close, occupied barracks and damaged police vehicles.Mayors in several of the state’s small cities — 30,000 inhabitants or less — canceled Carnival celebrations. In Paracuru, where authorities were expecting 40,000 revelers a day, the mayor said he was no longer able to ensure security in his city’s streets.A reveler in a costume enjoys the “Ceu na Terra” or Heaven on Earth street party in Rio de Janeiro, Feb. 22, 2020. From very early in the morning revelers take the streets of the bohemian neighborhood Santa Teresa for one of the many block parties.Illegal police strikesEven though police strikes are illegal in Brazil, other states are at risk of seeing similar protests, lawmakers and public security experts told The Associated Press.In Alagoas state, civil police, in charge of investigating crimes, have been on strike for two weeks.“The governor has made a lot of empty promises to the military police. At some point, that bomb can explode,” said lawmaker Davi Maia, who has met police in Congress to discuss their demands.In Paraiba, military police organized a 12-hour strike on Feb. 19. In Santa Catarina, public security agents threatened to slow work to a bare minimum, paralyzing operations to an extent but avoiding illegal strikes.In Rio, one association of municipal guards, who police city parks and properties, began a strike Saturday, during Carnival.Police strikes aren’t new, according to Ilona Szabo, co-founder of a security research center, the Igarape Institute. A study by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul showed that between 1997 and 2017, Brazil had 715 police strikes, but only 52 by military police.“More than ever Brazil needs to democratize and professionalize its police forces,” Szabo said.Many believe police officers are emboldened by the 2018 elections, in which Bolsonaro and other fervent law-and-order supporters were elected. A former army captain, Bolsonaro supported the armed forces during his 30-year legislative career and has said police who kill on duty should be decorated.States out of moneyMany Brazilians states’ finances are in the red, with public servants often receiving partial or delayed salaries. Carnival celebrations often prove a good opportunity for public servants, including police, to pressure authorities, who fear violence and looting during the festivities.Tourists and party-goers at Carnival are often targeted by pick-pockets. In the state of Sao Paulo, police have arrested 240 suspects as part of a carnival security operation.Last year, public security officers in Minas Gerais also chose February to threaten the newly elected administration of Gov. Romeu Zema Neto with strikes if he didn’t readjust their salary.“The government was pressured to choose between a terrible, and least worst option,” said state lawmaker da Cunha. Police shut down a motorway and armed men attempted to invade the governor’s office, according to witnesses who asked that their names not be used because of safety fears.As part of the negotiations, the governor obtained an agreement that the increase be postponed one year, meaning the proposal only landed this month in the state’s legislative assembly.The news of a 42% salary increase spread rapidly, boosting similar requests in Ceara and other states, and angering governors who have resisted threats of illegal protests.“Minas Gerais granted this increase, in a state that is not paying salaries, and is in a situation of bankruptcy,” said Ignacio Cano, coordinator of the Violence Analysis Laboratory at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.“It says a lot about the moment the country is going through, and the strength that public forces are acquiring,” he said.
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Mexico extradited the son of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to face drug charges in the United States, leading to fears his powerful gang may retaliate.Ruben Oseguera was handed over to U.S. authorities Thursday after he lost a long legal fight against extradition, Mexico’s top security official, Alfonso Durazo, said Friday.The U.S. Department of Justice said Oseguera will appear in a federal court in Washington Friday to answer a drug-distribution indictment.Oseguera is known as “El Menchito,” after his father, Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho.” The younger Oseguera was born in California and holds dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship. He was arrested in 2015 on weapons possession and organized crime charges, and had been fighting extradition.The Jalisco cartel is currently Mexico’s most violent and fastest-growing gang.Embassy warningThe move appeared to spark fears of retaliation.The U.S. Embassy issued a security alert saying “following previous high-profile security operations, criminal groups operating in Jalisco have responded by taking retaliatory actions including an increase in anti-government rhetoric (banners and internet threats) and blockades inside the city and on interstate highways.”“On some occasions, these criminals have seized private vehicles and set them on fire,” according to the alert.Durazo said Mexico had tried to extradite Oseguera before but “in fact, the process was a long one because of several legal appeals” filed by his lawyers, the last of which was rejected Wednesday.Victor Francisco Beltran, Oseguera’s Mexican lawyer, denied he was the son of Nemesio Osegura, suggesting he was instead a nephew.Beltran said the extradition shouldn’t have happened, because the younger Oseguera still had pending appeals.Fugitive fatherThe elder Oseguera remains a fugitive, despite the 2018 arrest of his wife.The U.S. has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the elder Oseguera.Jalisco New Generation has a reputation for battling with government agents. It brazenly shot down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket launcher in 2015, prompting Mexican officials to declare an all-out offensive against the criminal group.
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Thursday vowed not to bow to government “repression” after counterintelligence military agents raided his detained uncle’s home, an action Guaido called a “farce.”“If they think we are going to retreat from the path that we have taken and are going to take, they are mistaken. We will move forward,” tweeted Guaido, recognized by more than 50 countries, including the U.S., as Venezuela’s interim president.The wife and two children of his uncle, Juan Marquez,  were inside the apartment as the raid occurred.Joel Garcia, lawyer of Juan Marquez, uncle of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido, talks on the phone in front of a Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence vehicle in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb.20, 2020.AFP journalists witnessed General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence agents being permitted into the apartment building’s car park by hooded uniformed men. Outside of the complex, Delsa Solorzano, an opposition lawmaker, called the search “completely illegal.”“I tried to enter and the DGCIM officials didn’t let me in,” one of Marquez’s lawyers, Joel Garcia, told reporters after being barred from entering the premises. “When they don’t allow a trusted lawyer to accompany them it’s because they came to plant evidence.”Marquez was arrested on Feb. 11 when returning to Venezuela with Guaido after an international tour meant to generate support to oust President Nicolas Maduro. Marquez was arrested on charges that he was smuggling explosives into Venezuela on their flight from Portugal.The United States, seen as Guaido’s most powerful supporter, has warned of repercussions if Guaido were arrested. The State Department said Marquez is being held on “preposterous charges.”An attorney for Marquez said actions taken against his client are intended to intimidate Guaido and “break his will” in challenging Maduro. 
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido says military police raided the home of his uncle, a week after the relative was arrested on his return with Guaido to Venezuela.
    
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said military police raided the home of his uncle early Thursday, a week after the relative was arrested on his return with Guaido to Venezuela.
    
On Twitter, Guaido described the search of Juan Jose Marquez’s home as another act of persecution by a “cowardly dictatorship” that will not deter the opposition movement.
    
An Associated Press journalist saw a police vehicle parked in front of the Caracas apartment building where Marquez lives. An officer in a black mask later drove off in the vehicle.
    
Marquez traveled to Venezuela with Guaido, who had completed an international tour in which he sought support for the opposition’s campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
    
Marquez was promptly arrested and accused of transporting explosives, an allegation that Guaido has dismissed as absurd.
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Bolivia’s public prosecutor has opened an investigation into “electoral fraud” against former president Evo Morales and some of his closest allies, the attorney general said on Wednesday.
“A new case has been opened against the ex-authorities for electoral fraud,” said Juan Lanchipa.Morales was controversially awarded victory at October’s election despite a highly suspicious 24-hour freeze in the live vote count, after which his lead over nearest challenger Carlos Mesa had jumped significantly.An audit by the Organization of American States found clear evidence of vote rigging.After three weeks of at times violent protests against Morales’s re-election, the 60-year-old resigned on November 10 and fled abroad.October’s election was annulled a new one called for May 3 by interim President Jeanine Anez.Former president Mesa brought the case against Morales, accusing him of falsifying and altering documents, blocking electoral processes and concealing results.Following Morales’s resignation, the six members of the electoral tribunal were arrested. Five are currently in jail and the sixth under house arrest.Mesa says the investigation against them is inconclusive because it “doesn’t take into consideration the intellectual authors” of the fraud.The case against Morales and his associates — former vice president Alvaro Garcia and ex-ministers Juan Ramon Quintana, Hector Arce and Carlos Romero — has been brought so that “never again a president of the state, abusing his power, makes a mockery of the public’s vote,” said Mesa’s lawyer, Carlos Alarcon.He said it was “inadmissible” that only the six magistrates had been investigated when “they didn’t act for their own benefit.””They acted for the benefit of the ex-president Morales and the leadership of his government.”Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president who ruled for almost 14 years, is already under investigation for sedition and terrorism over an audio recording in which he allegedly urges his supporters to lay siege to La Paz and other major cities.The former trade union leader has been barred from standing for president in May’s general election — Bolivia’s constitution limits a president to two successive terms, while Morales ruled for three in a row.His Movement for Socialism party has nominated him to stand for a berth in the Senate but the electoral tribunal — which has been entirely replaced since he left power — is studying his eligibility.
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DESSOURCES, HAITI – Farmhand Celavi Belor has lost so much weight over the past year his clothes hang limply off his angular frame.“Sometimes I go two or three days without eating,” the 41-year-old said as he looked up from hoeing a rocky field in the mountains of northwestern Haiti.Farmhand Celavi Belor, 41, a father of five children, pauses from work in Jean-Rabel, Haiti, Jan. 31, 2020.The only food Belor, his wife and five children had to eat the day before was cornmeal, and now the only food left in their mud shack is a shriveled green chili and some stale beans.“My biggest worry is one day I just won’t be able to get up anymore,” he said, his eyes sunken and unfocused.While Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has long had one of the world’s highest levels of food insecurity, drought has ravaged harvests for the last few years, worsening food shortages and raising prices.The northwest, one of the Caribbean nation’s most remote and impoverished regions, has suffered the most.A collapse in the gourde currency has put imported food, which supplies more than half the country’s needs, out of reach for many Haitians like Belor, who earns just $0.40 a day when he can find the work.Compounding that, anti-government protests sparked by anger over alleged corruption shuttered businesses and public institutions for three months last fall and disrupted the transportation of goods, including food aid.By further stoking inflation and squeezing incomes, the peyi lock, as the standstill was known in Creole, has tipped Haiti into a new hunger crisis.Third of Haitians need foodOne in three Haitians, about 3.7 million people, needs urgent food assistance, up from 2.6 million people at the end of 2018, the United Nations said in December. Haiti now ranks 111 out of 117 countries on the Global Hunger Index, in the company mostly of the poorest sub-Saharan African countries.If immediate action is not taken, by next month 1.2 million people will only be able to eat one meal every other day in the Caribbean nation, the United Nations has warned.Frena Remorin, 30, (seated) cooks bananas in the improvised kitchen in the yard of her house in Jean-Rabel, Haiti, Jan. 31, 2020.“No one has eaten yet today but if I feed my kids too early in the day they are hungry by night and cannot sleep,” said Frena Remorin, 30, who lives down the road from Belor in the district of Dessources.Sitting on a stool peeling manioc and bananas to boil over a charcoal fire, Remorin is struggling to find work washing clothes because few people have the money to spend.“I don’t have enough money now for two meals a day,” she said.Political instabilityDonors who had hoped Haiti could rebuild as a successful nation after the country’s devastating 2010 quake have been frustrated by the political instability and bad governance hampering development efforts.With no authorized government or budget, Haiti now is not allowed to access certain funds from international organizations earmarked for it, further hindering its ability to respond to the food crisis. Foreign aid to Haiti’s public coffers, which leapt after 2010, halved last year.FILE – Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise speaks with Reuters, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 15, 2019.President Jovenel Moise is struggling to negotiate a power-sharing agreement to break the political gridlock. In the meantime, local authorities make do.“This is the first time we’ve had it this bad,” said Dessources district leader Jean Jacques Lebeau, 60, who receives $45 per month from the central government to help around 12,000 households.Self-sufficientIt wasn’t always like this. Haiti was largely food self-sufficient until the 1980s, when at the encouragement of the United States the country started loosening restrictions on crop imports and lowered tariffs, then imported surplus U.S. crops, a decision that put Haitian farmers out of business and contributed to investment tailing off.Add to this the effects of climate change: Haiti regularly tops the ranks of most vulnerable nations. This is because it is part of an island in the Caribbean, where hurricanes are getting stronger, but also because it has little infrastructure or resilience.The real impact of the crisis will show in six months or so as malnutrition sets in, experts like Cédric Piriou, Haiti Country Director of Action Against Hunger, say.Infant mortality already appears to be rising.“If we had four children suffering malnutrition die before, now these last few months it has been six to eight,” said Margareth Narcisse, 57, a doctor on the medical board of St Damien Pediatric’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince, the capital city.The impoverished slums of the capital are, together with the Northwest, the areas worst affected by hunger.Dorvil Chiloveson, 3, swollen with edema, is watched over by his mother Linda Julien, 20, in the malnutrition ward at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 29, 2020.In the malnutrition ward, 3-year-old Dorvil Chiloveson lies on his side in a cot. He is suffering from severe protein malnutrition, known as kwashiorkor: his tiny body is swollen with edema, with patches of skin discolored and showing raw flesh.“We couldn’t go sell our harvest during peyi lock so we lost it,” said his grandmother Marise Rose Dor, 41, who lives on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.After they ate their crop, all they could afford was rice with bananas from the garden. Instead of buying drinking water, they used a local spring they know is likely to be contaminated because of the absence of a sewage system in Haiti.Many families told Reuters they could no longer afford tablets to clean the water or charcoal to boil it.Helicopter aidThe U.N. World Food Program (WFP), which alongside other international organizations assists Haiti’s most needy, has scaled up operations in response to the crisis, distributing more food, and cash. Given the resurgence of gang violence plaguing the roads, it has also arranged for a helicopter to transport staff, other humanitarian workers and light cargo.The WFP estimated in November it needed $72 million to fund this emergency assistance to 700,000 Haitians for eight months.On Wednesday it said it had raised only $19 million so far.“Why should we bail the authorities out if they helped create this crisis?” one Haiti-based European diplomat asked, adding that politicians were not being held accountable. “How do we change that so that they don’t hurt people when they are going hungry?” Humanitarian workers — and Haitians — beg the world not to turn a blind eye to the immediate suffering.In Dessources, Belor, who cannot afford schooling in a country where about 80% of education is private, says his children are pale and listless.In the past, at least they could rely on the mango and breadfruit trees if they could not afford to buy food. But thanks to the drought, these trees are no longer producing.Belor no longer even worships at his Baptist church because he cannot afford the clothes he feels he needs to attend.“I live without hope,” he said.
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Canadian police said Wednesday that sudden whiteout conditions most likely triggered a massive pileup involving about 200 vehicles south of Montreal. There were no immediate reports of deaths, but Quebec provincial police said about a dozen people were sent to hospitals with minor to serious injuries after the midday crash in La Prairie, Quebec. Firefighters from La Prairie said two people were still trapped Wednesday afternoon, and authorities were trying to stabilize a diesel spill before extracting them from the wreckage. Those two people were considered to be in serious condition. The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. on a stretch of Highway 15 that runs along the St. Lawrence River. The pileup of vehicles stretched for about a kilometer. Strong windsTransport Minister Francois Bonnardel told reporters in Quebec City the pileup took place in an area where heavy winds come off the river, creating sudden blizzard-like conditions. “People were driving, there were strong winds … and, suddenly, you couldn’t see anything,” Bonnardel said. ”And then, well, the pileup started.” Two snow removal operations took place in the area in the hour before the incident, he noted. Bonnardel said the highway isn’t known for particular safety issues and 65,000 vehicles use the southbound part of it daily. The transport minister said he’d await the results of an investigation before deciding if any measures needed to be taken. Dozens need towingPolice spokesman Sergeant Stephane Tremblay said about 50 vehicles were able to drive away from the collision, but 75 others would need to be towed. Numerous vehicles were mangled, including several large trucks. About 150 people were taken by bus to a nearby community center for treatment and to be picked up. Tremblay said police crash experts would study what caused the pileup. A school bus was also involved in the pileup, but none of the high school students on board were injured, said Andree Laforest, the province’s acting public security minister. 
 
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