New Charges For Lula And Dilma

BRAZIL

Mounting Offences

Brazil’s attorney general charged former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his successor Dilma Rousseff with running a “criminal organization” that collected some $450 million in bribes during their Workers’ Party’s nearly 14 years at the helm.

The charge marks the first time that Rousseff has been accused of partaking in the ubiquitous kickback schemes that have tarred all of Brazil’s major political parties, the New York Times reported. It also cast a pall over Lula’s bid to return to the presidency despite the recent conviction against him in the long-running corruption scandal involving the state-owned Petrobras oil company.

Though he faces 10 years in prison for his earlier conviction, Lula was wrapping up a 25-city campaign trip when the charges were unveiled. The populist leader appeared to be nonplussed to be facing another court case.

“I’ll say one thing: we’re going to govern this country again,” he said via Twitter. “And when I say we, it’s not me. It’s you.”

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Views Of San Francisco Bay On Labor Day

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Colombia-Freshly Inked

COLOMBIA

Freshly Inked

Colombia inked a formal cease-fire agreement with its last remaining major rebel group, making further progress in the long walk toward a permanent peace deal.

Talks have been underway with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, since February, the Associated Press reported.

Under the deal, the rebels will suspend attacks on infrastructure, kidnappings and recruitment of minors. For its part the government will protect social leaders from reprisal and develop a program to rehabilitate rebel fighters.

The deal with the much smaller group comes in the lead-up to a visit to Colombia from Pope Francis, who is fulfilling a promise to visit the war-torn country contingent on a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

FARC has turned over its weapons and aims to compete in elections next year. But negotiations with ELN have been slower since exploratory talks began more than three years a

Guatemala: Comedians, Corruption, And Rainbows

GUATEMALA

Comedians, Corruption and Rainbows

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales had a problem – namely one pesky anti-corruption official. He created a solution: Kick the nuisance out.

In doing so, he created a bigger problem. Now, he is being accused of a “vendetta” against the head of Guatemala’s International Commission against Impunity, reported Reuters.

“I think it’s fair to say this is a constitutional crisis of the gravest proportions,” Wilson Center expert Eric Olson told the New York Times. “The train is veering off the tracks, and it’s not clear who will stop it.”

The story started two years ago when Ivan Velasquez, who directs the United Nations-affiliated anti-corruption commission, helped Morales win office by probing his political opponents. But late last month the president tried to expel Velasquez from the Central American country, triggering a conflict.

That’s because Velasquez had recently called for a corruption investigation into the president. Authorities also arrested Morales’ son and brother in January on corruption charges.

People took to the streets against the expulsion. A cabinet minister quit in protest, and the foreign minister was fired for refusing to expel Velasquez. The courts issued a stop order against it. Morales rescinded. “The rule of law should always prevail,” the president wrote on Facebook.

The uprising was a welcome change that reflects new hope in the region.

“One adjective often used to describe corruption in Latin America is ‘chronic.’ Or, even worse, ‘entrenched,’” wrote the Christian Science Monitor in an editorial. “Such a fatalistic narrative, however, has been challenged in recent days by the people of Guatemala.”

Now advocates of good government are hoping the crisis ends with the Guatemalan judiciary strengthened.

“The court’s ruling must prevail and Morales must abide by it,” wrote former Guatemalan judge Claudia Escobar and National Endowment for Democracy researcher Eshe Hill in the Washington Post. “This is exactly the sort of crisis that tests the effectiveness of democratic institutions and the need for balance of power.”

The trial against brother Samuel and son Jose Manuel, meanwhile, has begun. They’re charged with tax fraud. Samuel also faces money-laundering charges. Both deny the allegations, according to ABC. The proceedings are likely to produce high drama in the coming weeks.

Morales is a former television comedian, a political outsider who promised clean government. Now his hardline tactics against Velasquez could backfire on him politically. Guatemalans have lived through decades of corrupt leaders. They know the tactics.

“You commit crimes and you blow up one of those who is investigating,” a former Morales supporter told the New York Times. “Wherever you look, this is unacceptable. Jimmy has to resign.”

It’s doubtful Morales will step down.

But his turnaround in the face of popular opposition and acknowledgement of the separation of powers might be the best precedent he will ever set in his administration.

In Guatemala, that’s a rainbow after the deluge.

Venezuela-What's For Dinner?

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Good Morning, today is September 01, 2017.

NEED TO KNOW What’s for Dinner? Though Venezuela boasts the largest oil reserves in the world, the collapse of its socialist economic model has led to chronic food shortages, malnutrition and civil unrest. As a result, destitute Venezuelan’s are left to scrounge for food wherever they can find it – even in their local zoo, Reuters reports. Venezuelan police are currently investigating a string of thefts from a zoo in the western state of Zulia. The missing beasts include two collared peccaries, an animal similar to a boar, and two tapirs, a pig-like jungle animal that’s on the brink of extinction. Police are working under the assumption that the animals were taken “with the intention of eating them,” Luis Morales, an official for the Zulia division of Venezuela’s National Police, recently told reporters. Zoo officials dispute that conclusion, however, claiming that the animals were likely lifted by drug dealers hoping to sell the animals for a profit. While the international community claims Venezuela’s woes are a direct result of the government’s economic gaffes, President Nicolas Maduro contends that food shortages are due to opposition protests that have clogged trade routes.