Who is committing acts of terrorism in Guatemala and why?
Mexico's Zetas drug gangs have seized control of large swaths of territory along Guatemala's northern border
.Timeline
September 9, 2013
At least 43 people are killed after a passenger bus crashed into a river in western Guatemala. the passenger bus fell down a canyon and crashed into a river west of the capital, Guatemala City. .. bus fell about 100 meters before crashing in to the river in the San Martin Jilotepeque municipality..
Children and newborn infants were among those killed in the accident.
September 8, 2013
PressTV - 11 dead, 18 wounded in attacks near Guatemala City
www.presstv.ir
Sep 08, 2013 · At least 11 people were killed and another 15 injured in an armed standoff at a liquor store in Guatemala, rescue officials said.
August 19, 2013
Year 2011- Guatemalan radio host and journalist Carlos Alberto Orellana Chávez, 66, was found dead on 19 August 2013 in Villa Linda, San Bernardino, in the Suchitepéquez ...
- Aug 20, 2013 · The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on the government of Guatemala to investigate and punish those responsible for the killing ...August 6, 2013
Guatemala:Killing Raises Concern about Safety of Journalists Mr. Lima, 68, a journalist and broadcaster at Radio Sultana Zacapata, was shot dead on 6 August as he was arriving to the station where he hosted a popular programme of music and interviews with local personalities. He is the third journalist killed in Guatemala this year, according to UNESCO, the UN agency tasked with defending press freedom worldwide.
June 13, 2013- Jul 21, 2013 · Guatemalan security forces on the weekend captured two more suspects in the June 13 massacre of nine police officers, officials said Sunday.April 7, 2013
Reporters Without Borders and the Guatemala Information Centre (CERIGUA) condemn journalist and media owner Luis Alberto Lemus Ruano's murder in a pharmacy he owned Jalpatagua, in the southeastern department of Jutiapa, on 7 April 2013.
January 2013Jan 17, 2013 ·The killing of two girls.. The bodies of the two girls, ages 6 and 12, were found dumped on a Guatemala City street Wednesday. They youngsters had been asphyxiated,.. is any connection between the two girls and two adult women whose bodies were found that same morning with gunshot wounds..The girls' violent end set off outrage in Guatemala, a place where the high incidence of violence is already a problem.
Some 707 women were killed in Guatemala in 2012, a significant increase from 431 in 2011, according to the human rights group Mutual Support, which tracks violence in that nation. Already this year, 32 murders of women have been reported in just 15 days, while 216 men have been killed in the same period, the human rights group said.
Oct 10, 2012 ·
NY Daily News - Four children are the only survivors of family ...www.nydailynews.com/news/world/...massacre-guatemala-article-1.1179094Four children are the only survivors of family massacre that killed 7 inGuatemala Four children, ages 4 to 12, were the only survivors of a massacre ingunmen stormed a small house, going room to room shooting dead members of the same family... Seven people, including two children, were killed in the early morning attack in the city of Villa Canales, Guatemalan police and local media said....The children who survived the attack, ages 4, 6, 11 and 12, told police how they hid from the gunmen as they descended on the house with rifles.....detained a man believed to be the mastermind of the attack, Guatemalan news station Siglo21 reported. César Chavez, a neighbor of the family, allegedly targeted them because of an ongoing dispute over land. He is facing multiple murder charges, the station said.Motive: land dispute? Looks like terrorism.
May 2011
May 16, 2011 · 27 killed in massacre in northern Guatemala; farm workers beheaded in lawless border region By Philip Caulfield / DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday,
27 farm workers were massacred by gang members thought to belong to Mexico's Zetas drug gangs that have seized control of large swaths of territory along Guatemala's northern border. July 2011
Jul 09, 2011 · Gunmen with rifles shot and killed one of Latin America's most famous folk singers, Facundo Cabral, on Saturday The Argentine singer and novelist was on his way to Guatemala's main airport when gunmen attacked his vehicle, killing him with at least eight bullets, and wounding his concert promoter. The motive was "not clear"
Year 2007
They keep on killing and killing'
Thousands of women and girls have been murdered in Guatemala - and the toll is still rising. Yet the killers are rarely brought to justice.
Jo Tuckman on a human rights emergency
The Guardian, Thursday 19 April 2007
On New Year's Day his seven-year-old daughter was killed. She had been sent out to buy a nappy for her baby brother but never arrived home - hours later her decapitated body was found in one of the deep gullies that run through the capital's slums...Since 2001, more that 2,600 Guatemalan women and girls have been killed and the numbers seem to be accelerating - 110 were murdered in January and February this year alone. Only a negligible number of their killers has ever been convicted.
.end timeline
.Corruption
http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/03/11/guatemala-drugs-and-corruption/
Guatemala, drugs, and corruption
Last week, the official drug czar of Guatemala as well as the chief of national police were arrested for allegedly leading a police ring that stole cocaine from drug traffickers. Now that is deep-rooted corruption.
Guatemala is caught in a vicious cycle. On one side, the police and security forces have become involved in organized crime and other corrupt activities. On the other, such activities are not stopped because law enforcement itself is involved. Thus corrupt acts occur with impunity, leading to further acts, and the cycle continues. Moreover, in a poor country, many may feel that corruption is their best option.
And if there is failure of the rule of law near a major consumer market, there are likely to be drugs. Crackdowns in neighboring Mexico have pushed activity south, and Guatemala has become a major transit country between producers like Colombia and users in the United States. One Guatemalan once told me of traffickers paying poor farmers to allow planes to land in their fields. The farmer is given a package, and then hands it off to another plane later on. Such simple work can earn the farmer tens of thousands of dollars or more. Alternative sources of income seem laughable in comparison.
In addition to the officials just arrested, Guatemala has seen a string of high-level arrests, including the drug czar in 2005 caught on tape bribing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency official in exchange for protecting U.S.-bound drug shipments. Thus, it appears that Guatemalan officials are using their positions to protect the drug trade in exchange for presumably generous personal benefit.
Mar 13, 2013 · Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in Latin America, with thousands of drug-related killings each year.
Guatemala has 18 active free trade zones ... Iranian drug trafficking ... Proceeds from the illicit drug trade leaving the United States are the principal sources of ...
Historically weak law enforcement and judiciary systems coupled with endemic corruption and increasing organized crime activity contribute to a favorable climate for significant money laundering in Guatemala. According to law enforcement agencies, narcotics trafficking and corruption are the primary sources of money laundered in Guatemala; however, the laundering of proceeds from other illicit activities, such as human trafficking, firearms, contraband, kidnapping, tax evasion, and vehicle theft, is substantial. There is no indication of terrorist financing activities.
Guatemala’s geographic location makes it an ideal haven for transnational organized crime groups, including human and drug trafficking organizations. The Central America Four Agreement among El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua allows for free movement of the citizens of these countries across their respective borders without passing through immigration or customs inspection. As such, the agreement represents a vulnerability to each country for the cross-border movement of contraband and illicit proceeds of crime.
There is a category of “offshore” banks in Guatemala in which the money of the customers (usually Guatemalans with average deposits of $100,000) is legally considered to be deposited in the foreign country where the bank’s head office is based. In 2012, there were seven “offshore” entities, with head offices in Panama, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. These “offshore” banks are subject to the same anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulations as any local bank. Guatemala has 18 active free trade zones (FTZs) and nine more are scheduled to start operations soon. FTZs are mainly used to import duty-free goods utilized in the manufacturing of products for exportation, and there are no known cases or allegations that indicate the FTZs are hubs of money laundering or drug trafficking. There are no reported hawala or other money or value transfer services operating in Guatemala. A significant number of remittances are transferred through banks and appear to pose little risk for money laundering.
Iran
Although not considered a financial hub, Iran has a large underground economy, spurred by restrictive taxation, widespread smuggling, currency exchange controls, capital flight, and a large Iranian expatriate community. Iran is a major transit route for opiates smuggled from Afghanistan through Pakistan to the Persian Gulf, Turkey, Russia, and Europe. At least 40 percent of opiates leaving Afghanistan enter or transit Iran for domestic consumption or for consumers in Russia and Europe. Illicit proceeds from narcotics trafficking are used to purchase goods in the domestic Iranian market; those goods are often exported and sold in Dubai. Iran’s merchant community makes active use of money and value transfer systems, including hawala and moneylenders. Counter-valuation in hawala transactions is often accomplished via trade, thus trade-based transactions are likely a prevalent form of money laundering. Many hawaladars and traditional bazaari are linked directly to the regional hawala hub in Dubai. Over 300,000 Iranians reside in Dubai, with approximately 8,200 Iranian-owned companies based there. There are reports that billions of dollars in Iranian capital have been invested in the United Arab Emirates, particularly in Dubai real estate. Iran’s real estate market also is used to launder money. Iran is ranked 133 out of 174 countries listed in Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perception Index. There is pervasive corruption within the ruling and religious elite, government ministries, and government-controlled business enterprises.
On November 21, 2011, the U.S. Government identified Iran as a state of primary money laundering concern pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Widespread corruption and economic sanctions, as well as evasion of those sanctions, have undermined the potential for private sector growth and facilitated money laundering. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has repeatedly warned of Iran’s failure to address the risks of terrorist financing. In October 2012, the FATF again urged jurisdictions around the world to impose countermeasures to protect their financial sectors from illicit finance emanating from Iran.
In 1984, the Department of State designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. Iran continues to provide material support, including resources and guidance, to multiple terrorist organizations and other groups that undermine the stability of the Middle East and Central Asia. Hamas, Lebanese Hizballah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) maintain representative offices in Tehran, in part to help coordinate Iranian financing and training.
Iran has established an international banking network, with many large state-owned banks that have foreign branches and subsidiaries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. Presently, Iranian banks have a diminishing international presence in these regions as a growing number of governments move to sanction Iranian financial institutions in response to UN, U.S., and autonomous sanctions regimes as well as the FATF statements on Iran’s lack of adequate anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) controls. Iran is known to use its state-owned banks to channel funds to terrorist organizations and finance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Many of the world’s leading financial institutions have voluntarily chosen to reduce or cut ties with Iranian banks; and, in March 2012, some Iranian financial institutions were disconnected from the SWIFT international network to curtail their ability to send and receive international wires due to European Union (EU) sanction violations. The United States has designated at least 20 banks and subsidiaries under counter-proliferation and terrorism authorities.
Guatemala: Drug Trafficking and Violence 14 October 2011: Mark Schneider, Crisis Group’s Senior Vice President and Special Adviser on Latin America, discusses drug ...
The bloody eruption of Mexican-led cartels into Guatemala is the latest chapter in a vicious cycle of violence and institutional failure. Geography has placed the ...
Last week, the official drug czar of Guatemala as well as the chief of national police were arrested for allegedly leading a police ring that stole cocaine from
"Once you set up a covert operation to supply arms and money, it's very difficult to separate it from the kind of people who are involved in other forms of trade, and ...
Guatemala Drug Problem Growing. It is naïve to think that the drug war currently causing problems in Mexico is confined to Mexico alone. Signs are emerging that ...
Guatemala’s criminal ... Guatemala, Illegal drug trade, Los Zetas ... Haiti Health Honduras Illegal drug trade India Iran Latin America Los Zetas ..
.PressTV
- Press TV - 11 hours agoSeptember 9, 2013 At least 43 people are killed after a passenger bus crashed into a river in western Guatemala.
- 4 days ago - An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale has hit Guatemalaclose to the border with Mexico, but there have been no initial reports of ...
September 8, 2013
PressTV - 11 dead, 18 wounded in attacks near Guatemala City
www.presstv.ir
1 day ago - Police officers carry a corpse at the crime scene where 11 people were killed in San Jose Nacauil, 20 km north of Guatemala City, ...Guatemala City and other parts of the country have experienced drug-related incidents of violence that led to mass murders throughout the country. In 2011, 27 farm workers were massacred by gang members thought to belong to Mexico's Zetas drug gangs that have seized control of large swaths of territory along Guatemala's northern border.
PressTV - Guatemala extradites ex-president to US
May 25, 2013 - Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (left) speaks to thepress as he is led by police to an aircraft that will fly him to the United States ...
PressTV - Guatemala cracks down on anti-mine protests
May 3, 2013 - The announcement came on Thursday by the country's President Otto Perez in an attempt to crush opposition against the mine owned by ...
PressTV - 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolts Guatemala Pacific coast
Nov 12, 2012 - An earthquake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, hits Guatemala'sPacific coast.
PressTV - Guatemala quake death toll reaches 52
Nov 8, 2012 - The epicenter of the Guatemalan earthquake was around 42 km under the Pacific Ocean, 56 km south-west of Guatemala, and 61 km ...
PressTV - Major earthquake off Guatemala Pacific coast kills 10
Nov 7, 2012 - Ten people are reportedly killed in major earthquake which joltedGuatemala's Pacific coast.
PressTV - Ex-Guatemala ruler conviction overturned
May 21, 2013 - The move came on Monday, about ten days after a three-judge panel convicted the 86-year-old of genocide and crimes against humanity, ...
No comments:
Post a Comment