Mexico-The War Without Name

The War Without a Name

MEXICO

A Mexican drug gang recently left six severed heads on a car roof in order to intimidate rival dealers who might try to infringe on claimed turf in the southern Mexican town of Chilapa de Alvarez.

“In Chilapa selling crystal, kidnapping, extortion and stealing are strictly prohibited. This will happen to anyone who messes around,” read a sign the killers hung in a tree near the scene, reported Reuters. “Capital punishment is the sentence for all these crimes.”

Nearby, authorities recently discovered a clutch of hidden graves containing dozens of bodies as well as a secret camp where the severed heads of nine unlucky gangsters were found in a cooler. The hapless corpses likely belonged to the nearly 100,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico over the years as violence has worsened.

The situation is untenable. And as a result, criminal gang-related violence has displaced tens of thousands of Mexicans, wrote the Washington Post, where headline writers referred to the problem as “the war next door.” Homes riddled with bullets, drones and even land mines have become commonplace in this war.

Women have especially been affected, according to Aztec reports, a Colombia-based media startup. Amnesty International found last year that 10 women and girls are murdered on a daily basis in the Latin American country. The Guardian wrote about Mexican female filmmakers who were producing films that tackle the subject head-on in an attempt to jar their fellow citizens into stamping out the problem.

Tourists and foreigners aren’t immune to the bloodshed. Gunmen in rival drug cartels have opened fire on each other on the 81-mile-long Riviera Maya, including in Cancun and Tulum, the Wall Street Journal added. The homicide rate in the region is 37 killings per 100,000 residents or five times larger than the rate in the US.

These activities have spilled across the US border, where dangerous migration routes and immigration, in general, have become hot-button political topics. They have also fueled violence to the south in Colombia as Mexican gangs trade weapons for cocaine, Reuters noted.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, elected in 2018 and serving a six-year term, recently won a recall vote that he encouraged in order to cement his popular mandate, explained Al Jazeera. He has made little progress in tackling crime, however, said an analyst at the Brookings Institution. He recently closed an elite investigations unit that was cooperating with the US in combating the drug trade instead.

Historians will ask why more was not done. In the meantime, some civilians don’t have time to ask – they are too busy looking for sanctuary.

 

Russian warship Moskva explodes on Ukraine coast

Brasil-Staying Transparent

 

Staying Transparent

BRAZIL

Brazil’s electoral authority for the first time invited European Union representatives to observe its upcoming presidential elections amid fears that far-right President Jair Bolsonaro will reject the results if they do not show him winning reelection, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) said the invitation aims “to amplify the transparency of its electoral system and make cooperation possible.” The authority said that it is also negotiating with other groups that have previously observed Brazilian elections, including the regional Organization of American States.

The invitation comes after Bolsonaro made unfounded allegations of fraud following Brazil’s 2020 regional elections and questioned the validity of the country’s electronic voting system. The president has demanded the adoption of paper ballots and accused the TSE of favoring his main opponent, the left-wing candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that he will consult the bloc and the European Parliament before making a decision. Sources said the EU is also planning to send a mission to Brazil to assess the viability of being an official observer in the upcoming vote.

Recent polls show da Silva ahead of the incumbent president, who faces criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and accusations of crimes against humanity over his approach to the public health crisis.

Of Old And New Peaks

 

Of Old and New Peaks

Peru’s most famous archaeological site, Machu Picchu, has been wrongly named for more than 100 years, CNN reported.

The majestic Machu Picchu – which means “old mountain peak” in the Indigenous Quechua language – was part of the Incan empire that spanned from what is now south-central Bolivia to a large portion of Chile.

The settlement was built around 1420 and is believed to have been an estate for royals living in the Incan capital of Cuzco.

Following the Spanish conquest, the settlement was abandoned for hundreds of years until American explorer Hiram Bingham came across it in 1911.

Bingham decided to give the ancient city its current name based on information provided by his guide, but he added in his notes that he was uncertain of the name when he first visited it.

In a new report, researchers Donato Amado Gonzales and Brian Bauer reviewed Bingham’s notes and a number of historical documents, including maps and atlases printed before the explorer’s visit.

Their findings showed that the city was actually named Huayna Picchu, which means “new mountain peak” or “young mountain peak.” One 1588 report also mentioned that the Indigenous population of the Vilcabamba region was considering returning to Huayna Picchu.

Gonzales and Bauer noted that previous non-Peruvian archaeologists did not properly research the name and didn’t grasp the local Quechua. The report also challenges the narrative that Bingham discovered the site.

Despite the findings, it’s unlikely that the site’s name will be changed, the team noted.

When Will Fujimori Be Released?

 

Round and Round

PERU

Peruvian authorities refused to release former President Alberto Fujimori from prison following a request from the regional Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which said it will review the divisive leader’s case, the Associated Press reported.

The decision comes nearly two weeks after Peru’s Constitutional Court ordered his release from prison where he is serving a 25-year sentence for murder and human rights violations committed during his rule between 1990 and 2000.

The regional court ordered Peru to hold Fujimori to “guarantee the right of access to justice for the victims.”

Last month, the Constitutional Court restored a humanitarian pardon granted to the former leader on Christmas Eve in 2017 by then-President Pablo Kuczynski. The Supreme Court had previously overturned that pardon and ordered his return to prison in 2018 to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Many international groups, including the United Nations, criticized his release, saying that it would shorten Fujimori’s sentence by a decade.

Fujimori remains a divisive figure in the South American country: He is remembered for defeating the Maoist Shining Path guerilla movement and rebuilding the economy through mass privatization of state industries. However, he has been accused of a number of human rights abuses during his leadership.

In 2000, he fled to Japan and later resigned after leaked videotapes showed his spy chief bribing lawmakers. But in 2006, he flew to neighboring Chile in an attempt to run for the presidency again. He was later arrested and then extradited to Peru, where he was put on trial.

Fujimori was also convicted in three corruption cases and owes nearly $14 million in civil damages.