The Latin American Report # 197

about 1 month ago

Corruption Observatory

In Ecuador, the Public Ministry's X-ray device continues to detect corrupt officials, all included in a big case known as "Metastasis". Attorney General Diana Salazar announced the formulation of thirteen new organized crime cases, including a judge, a former assemblyman, a former provincial prosecutor, and another former official linked to the penitentiary system. Metastasis is an "integral X-ray of the profound decomposition of our justice system, our politics, and how it has been abused," said Salazar. In this latest judicial onslaught, businessmen, police, and penitentiary agents have also fallen. The case has now implicated a prominent congressional representative of former President Rafael Correa's party, and a former prosecutor of the bruised province of Guayas, linked to a criminal boss who was murdered in prison in 2022, and whose phone records have been key for uncovering this embarrassing concomitance between crime and authorities. The judge charged this Friday "negotiated and convinced other judges to issue resolutions on precautionary measures for the benefit of (the criminals), under the promise of an economic benefit". The former prosecutor of Guayas guaranteed a considerable sentence reduction to the murdered criminal boss when she "modified (his) criminal type from arms trafficking to possession and carrying of weapons." "(The) judicial system is gangrenous in such a way that it is impossible to regenerate it if there is not a profound purge of all the corrupt structures," acknowledged Salazar, whose administrative dependency has already prosecuted 52 individuals as part of this effort.

_{The indictment of the former assemblyman allied with Rafael Correa links him to the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio (pictured) last year.}

Nicolás Petro tries to save his father

The eldest son of the Colombian president said Thursday that he was "pressured" by the Prosecutor's Office to involve him in the case for the alleged illicit financing of his presidential campaign. "I was pressured to testify against my father (...) The prosecutor Mario Burgos told me that in exchange he was not going to ask for a measure of assurance in jail for me, but a house arrest and that way I could see the birth of my son". Petro Burgos also denounced that "(those) who surrounded my arbitrary detention sowed tares to set me against my father; (then) I understood that all this is more a political than a legal issue". The Public Prosecutor's Office accuses him of receiving more than 200,000 dollars from two sources somehow mixed with crime, and that part of these funds went to the campaign that took Gustavo Petro to the Casa de Nariño. The rest financed personal expenses for the man who served as the campaign's coordinator in the Caribbean region. In any case, Nicolás Petro sentenced his father with his corrupt behavior, exposing him to voracious hyenas that from politics and the press don't accept that, for the first time, Colombia has a leftist president. Instead of helping to extinguish all the fires raised against him, Petro Jr. increased the temperature of the bonfire in which they intend to burn his father.

_{Gustavo Petro (in the center of the photo) and his son (to his right) celebrate the arrival of the former to the presidency.}

Colombian presidential candidate found guilty.

Rodolfo Hernández, Petro's rival in the last presidential elections, was convicted yesterday for undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, in a case dating back to his tenure as mayor of the northwestern city of Bucaramanga. Hernández delivered privileged information to strengthen the proposal of a company in bidding a contract for the use and final disposal of solid waste, guaranteeing economic benefits to his son by this means. Shockingly, the political movement with which he reached the runoff phase against Petro is called the League of Anticorruption Rulers. Demagogy continues to be a classic weapon of politicians, and the people passive and uncritical consumers of it. But even more, I think of those who actively cheered and promoted him. In any case, Hernández, a magnate and civil engineer, said he is suffering from terminal cancer at the hearing. I share below some Reuters material from two years ago, which serves to provide an insight into his political life.

Here are five things to know about Colombia’s self-styled ‘king of TikTok,’ business magnate Rodolfo Hernandez, who shocked the nation by getting into a June 19 presidential run-off against leftist Gustavo Petro https://t.co/swJB45Lpge pic.twitter.com/VAoV9a8Bos
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 31, 2022

Water crisis hits certain areas of Mexico

The Zumpango lagoon has dried up. Its stoppage as a water supply source is part of the major water crisis affecting some 20 million Mexicans in and around the capital. A fierce drought has wiped out key activities for these communities such as fishing. Take a local who used to catch several kilos of mojarras and carps and who confesses himself "devastated" after being approached by AFP. "I have relatives who were fishermen, and they already had to leave for [the United States] to look for better living conditions." Residents of the area, located north of Mexico City, denounce installing wells that will serve the critical capital enclave, leaving them in principle outside this emergency distribution network. "NO TO WATER THEFT. THE WATER IS OURS," is written in red on a wall very close to the disgraced reservoir. "It is ironic that on this side it is totally dry, like a desert, and on the other side they are making water wells. If there is water to take to other places, why is there no water on this side of the lagoon?" asks an expert.

_{Aerial view of the Zumpango "lagoon" (source).}

The water supply system in the Mexican capital is extremely broken, literally and comprehensively speaking. Water is delivered to certain neighborhoods by trucks, while people resort to water tanks and cisterns. The issue has crept into the campaign of the two women who want the presidency. Xóchitl Gálvez speaks of treating "100% of wastewater", while AMLO's favorite, Claudia Sheinbaum, is against new concessions to the private sector, and would recognize water as a national resource through a constitutional reform. The Valle de Bravo reservoir, critical for Mexico City's water supply, also threatens to dry up. Residents denounce irregularities that are contributing to this dynamic, such as breakdowns in the networks that connect to the capital and the construction of private dams and cisterns. The rich—and presumably among them some criminal gang leaders—arrive with resources and hoard more and more water, compromising the development of classic tourist activities for the locals, who authorities say should denounce such practices themselves. The pollution there is tangible, "you can smell it", they say.

_{Valle de Bravo dries up (Credit: Bernardo de la Garza).}

Bolsonaro's environment becomes even darker.

Former Brazil military chiefs implicate Bolsonaro in coup conspiracy https://t.co/Wi2BQNJTGd pic.twitter.com/NPMiJynsXi
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 15, 2024

Organized Crime Observatory

Diego Pérez, an aspiring mayor in the Mexican municipality of San Juan Cancuc—Chiapas state—was assassinated by hitmen last Thursday, while his wife and son were wounded. Pérez's death comes two days after the murder of another pre-candidate—shot in the head as he arrived home—in the state of Guerrero, fueling debate not about insecurity in Mexico, which is a fact, but about the inability of federal and provincial authorities to protect those who venture into the political race, which is another fact. Earlier this month another pre-candidate for mayor in the same Guerrero was shot dead inside his vehicle. "The government cannot continue denying reality: the more than 110 acts of violence related to the electoral process demand measures to guarantee the security of all (the candidates) and prevent organized crime from being the one to elect on June 2," said the president of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, for which Pérez aspired to run.
Two police officers and an inmate were killed in a riot in a prison in the state of San Luis Potosí, according to state authorities who also reported six injured. The prison went into rebellion after the tense transfer of 51 inmates to other penitentiaries. Inmates set fire to trees inside the prison. It is important to note that the cause of death or injuries was not disclosed.
Four people were captured in Colombia, among them a colonel and a police major, who were part of a structure in charge of 80% of smuggling in the country from its main ports. "We made the largest operation against smuggling in the history of Colombia," Petro said in X. The raids took place in the capital, Bucaramanga, and Cali, with the support of the DEA and Europol. The major implicated in the criminal organization "recruited police officers to bring in the goods without the corresponding payment to the Colombian state", with the damage to the official coffers estimated at some 20 million dollars a year.
The tidal wave of violence is once again raging in Port-au-Prince. Residents set up barricades to protect themselves from attacks by the ad hoc syndicate of gangs under the apparent command of alias Barbacoa, but also in a sign of weariness at the prolongation of their nightmare. Shots were fired at the airport on Thursday, resulting in the wounding of a policeman, while the residence of the police director general was ransacked and set on fire. Blinken claims that most of the members of the controversial presidential council proposed by Caricom have been elected, while a blockade is reported from Capitol Hill to the funds committed by Washington for the international security mission.

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.