by tyler | Jun 30, 2023 | americas, CNN
Brazil’s highest electoral court formed a majority Friday to ban former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030 on charges alleging that he abused his political power and misused public resources.
Five out of seven judges have voted to convict the former president, effectively ending any hope of a political comeback in the 2026 election. A simple majority is needed to reach a final verdict.
Two of the judges voted against the charges. The official court ruling will be announced later on Friday and a conviction would bar Bolsonaro from running for public office for eight years.
The charges against him stem from a meeting Bolsonaro held with ambassadors in July 2022, in which he spread false information about Brazil’s electoral system and brought its credibility into question ahead of last year’s fractious election. The meeting was livestreamed by official television channels and on YouTube.
YouTube took down the livestream of the event for not complying with its fake news policy.
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing. Speaking to Brazilian radio station Itatiaia on Friday, Bolsonaro said he planned to appeal the court’s decision.
The far right politician lost the election by the narrowest margin in decades to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Riots on January 8 saw pro-Bolsonaro protesters breaking into government buildings in Brasilia, following weeks of demonstrations over the election results.
The case at the Superior Electoral Court began with a lawsuit brought by Brazil’s Democratic Labor Party against both Bolsonaro and Walter Braga Netto, his running mate in the 2022 elections. The majority of judges voted to find Braga Netto not guilty.
During the meeting with ambassadors, the former president allegedly said the 2022 elections might be compromised due to fraud, according to a report by Judge Benedito Gonçalves.
Bolsonaro also allegedly said that in 2018 voting machines had changed voters’ choices to benefit his opponent, and that the Brazilian voting machines are not auditable, while insinuating that electoral and judicial authorities were protecting “terrorists,” the report added.
Such claims of flaws in the electoral system have all been denied by Brazil’s electoral authorities.
The case at the Superior Electoral Court is one of several cases against the former president.
by tyler | Jun 22, 2023 | americas, CNN
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s trial on charges of abuse of political power and misuse of public media began in the country’s highest electoral court on Thursday in Brasilia.
The charges stem from a meeting Bolsonaro held with foreign diplomats in July 2022, in which he is accused of spreading false information about Brazil’s electoral system and bringing its credibility into question – a strategy the former president used in his reelection campaign.
If found guilty, Bolsonaro could be ruled ineligible to run for public office for up to eight years.
In Thursday’s court session, a report from Judge Benedito Gonçalves on the case was read aloud and both sides presented their arguments. The trial has now been adjourned until next week. Proceedings could be extended by months if any of the judges request more information.
The far right Bolsonaro has said the charges are not justified, and trivialized the proceedings in an exclusive interview with CNN Brasil on Wednesday, describing them as a “storm in a glass of water.”
“It was just discussed with them [the ambassadors] how the electoral system worked. I didn’t mention the word’ fraud’ there regarding future elections,” he said, adding: “I spoke of the Federal Police inquiry in November 2018 that, to date, has not been concluded. Only that. What is the problem discussing this matter?”
According to the report from Judge Gonçalves, the former president allegedly said the 2022 elections might be compromised due to fraud in his meeting with the ambassadors.
Bolsonaro also allegedly said that in 2018 voting machines changed voters’ choices to benefit his opponent, that the Brazilian voting machines are not auditable, and also insinuated that electoral and judicial authorities were protecting “terrorists,” the report added.
Such claims of flaws in the electoral system have all been denied by Brazil’s electoral authorities. The livestream of the 2022 meeting, which was once available through official channels, was taken down by YouTube for not complying with its fake news policy.
The case began with a lawsuit brought on by Brazil’s Democratic Labor Party against both Bolsonaro and Walter Braga Netto, his running mate in the 2022 elections.
Bolsonaro lost last year’s election by the narrowest margin in decades against current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Riots on January 8 saw pro-Bolsonaro protesters breaking into government buildings in Brasilia, following weeks of demonstrations over the election results.
by tyler | Jun 16, 2023 | americas, CNN
At least 15 people have died after a truck collided with a bus carrying senior citizens in a rural portion of Canada’s Manitoba province on Thursday afternoon, according to local authorities.
The bus was headed south on Highway 5 toward a casino near the town of Carberry, while the semitrailer was headed east on Highway 1, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Rob Lasson said in a news conference.
The semitrailer struck the bus at the intersection of the two highways north of Carberry, roughly 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Winnipeg.
“Immediately it became apparent that this was a mass casualty situation,” Lasson said.
In addition to the 15 killed, 10 others have been taken to a hospital, authorities said. The drivers of the semitrailer and the bus are among those being treated, Lasson said.
Twelve ambulances responded to the collision scene, as well as an air ambulance, said Jennifer Cumpsty, executive director of Acute Health Services.
Manitoba has not seen a mass casualty traffic accident like this before, Lasson told reporters. However, he said, the fatal incident resembles the deadly bus crash over 300 miles away in Canada’s Saskatchewan province where 10 Humboldt Broncos hockey players and five others, including two coaches, died in 2018.
“This incident does have echoes of the tragic collision that happened in Humboldt, Saskatchewan,” Lasson said. “And we are very much aware of that.”
Manitoba RCMP have connected with some of the main investigators in the Humboldt crash for assistance.
“This is new for us and our investigators, and it is very emotionally draining for them as well,” he said.
A majority of those on the bus were seniors who lived in and around the city of Dauphin, according to RCMP assistant commissioner Rob Hill.
Not all of the victims’ families had been notified as of Thursday evening.
Flags have been lowered in mourning at Manitoba’s legislative building, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the tragedy in a statement on Twitter.
“The news from Carberry, Manitoba is incredibly tragic. I’m sending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones today, and I’m keeping the injured in my thoughts. I cannot imagine the pain those affected are feeling – but Canadians are here for you,” Trudeau tweeted.
William Doherty, CEO of shipping company Day & Ross, which operated the semitrailer, has promised full cooperation with the investigation, noting that “at this time, we have limited details from the scene.”
by tyler | Jun 13, 2023 | americas, CNN
A 76-year-old woman who was declared dead at a hospital in Ecuador was found to be alive and knocking on her coffin during her own wake in the city of Babahoyo.
“I lifted up the coffin, and her heart was pounding, and her left hand was hitting the coffin… We called 911 to bring her here to the hospital,” her son Gilberto Barbera said in a video posted on social media.
In the video, people could be seen waiting and supporting Montoya as emergency services arrived at the scene, taking the 76-year-old woman back to the hospital.
A state investigation is now underway, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
It says the woman had been admitted Friday to the hospital with a possible stroke and cardiopulmonary arrest, and after she didn’t respond to resuscitation protocol, a doctor on duty declared her dead.
The video also goes on to show her hospital tags and then her son, who is shown pleading for an ambulance to arrive.
The woman’s full name is widely reported to be Bella Yolanda Montoya Castro, corresponding to the initials “B.Y.M.C” used in Ecuador’s Health Ministry statement issued on Sunday.
It said Montoya was in intensive care at the Martín Icaza Hospital in Babahoyo – the same facility that initially declared her dead. Her current condition is unknown.
CNN’s calls to the hospital for comment have not been returned.
The man recording the video later asked the name of the woman, to which someone in the room replied: “Bella Yolanda.”
The ministry went on to say that, in coordination with the Health Services Quality Assurance Agency, a national technical committee was formed “to initiate a medical audit to establish responsibilities for the alleged confirmation of death.”
by tyler | Jun 2, 2023 | americas, CNN
One month after four children vanished into the Colombian Amazon, a preliminary report by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority offers clues to how they could have survived the devastating airplane crash that killed every adult onboard.
The extraordinary story of the missing children has drawn intense interest across Colombia and internationally, as a massive military-led search operation continues in the forest.
The ill-fated flight on May 1 carried pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández, an indigenous woman named Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, and her four children, the eldest 13 years old and youngest just 11 months.
Soon after the early morning take-off from the remote community of Araracuara, the pilot radioed to air traffic control that he would look for an emergency landing spot, according to the report.
“…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I have the engine at minimum, I’m going to look for a field,” he said.
The pilot later updated that the engine had regained power, and continued on his way – only to hit trouble again less than an hour later: “…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, 2803, The engine failed me again… I am going to look for a river… I have a river on the right…”
This time the problem did not improve.
Air traffic control later tracked the plane veering right, the report said. Then it went off the radar.
Despite air and water searches that immediately followed the incident, per the report, the plane would not be found until more than two weeks later – time that may yet prove significant in the fates of the plane’s passengers, as investigators continue to probe the crash and its aftermath.
Five days after the plane’s disappearance, the Colombian military deployed special forces units to search the ground on May 6. Ten days later, on the night of May 16, they finally spotted the wreckage.
The three adults were found dead at the scene. But all four children were missing entirely – leading rescuers to presume that they had survived, evacuated the plane and were trekking the jungle on their own, and spurring a renewed search effort.
Investigators’ photos of the crash scene show the raised tail of a small plane painted in still-crisp blue and white, its nose and front smashed into the jungle terrain. The report says the plane likely first hit the trees of the dense forest, tearing the engine and propeller off, followed by a vertical drop to the forest floor.
“Detailed inspection of the wreckage indicated that, during tree landing, there was a first impact against the trees; this blow caused the separation of the engine with its cover and propeller from the aircraft structure,” the report says. “Due to the strong deceleration and loss of control in the first impact, the aircraft fell vertically and collided with the ground.”
Though it notes that forensic examinations are ongoing, the report suggests that the adults seated in the front of the plane cabin suffered fatal injuries from the crash. “The diagram of injuries caused by the accident registered fatal injuries in the occupants located in positions 1 (Pilot), 2 (male adult occupant) and 3 (female adult occupant).
But the rear seats, where the older children were located, were less affected by the impact, according to the report, offering a potential explanation for their survival and signs of life – including a baby bottle, a used diaper, and footprints – later found in the jungle by search and rescue teams.
Two of three seats occupied by the children remained in place and upright despite the crash, according to the report, while one child’s seat came loose from the plane structure.
The infant may have been held in the mother’s arms, according to the report.
The children “were not located in the area of the accident, and there were no signs that they had been injured, at least not seriously. For this reason, an intense search began in order to find them,” it says.
A total of 119 Colombian special forces troops and 73 indigenous scouts have so far been deployed to comb the area, according to the report.
Relatives have previously said that the children knew the jungle well – but worried whether they would understand that the outside world had not given up on them.
“Maybe they are hiding,” said Fidencio Valencia, the children’s grandfather, speaking to Colombia’s Caracol TV earlier this month.
“Maybe they don’t realize that they are looking for them; they are children.”
by tyler | May 31, 2023 | americas, CNN
It’s been just over 100 days since Nicaraguan opposition leader Felix Maradiaga was released from prison, along with at least 221 other political prisoners, and flown to the United States. His sudden release after 611 days of detention – many of them in solitary confinement, he says – came as a surprise both for Maradiaga and his wife Berta Valle.
Valle, who had no direct contact with her husband while he was in prison, told CNN there had been talk of something happening in Nicaragua in a family group chat the night before the flood of political prisoners was released. Jaded from prior disappointments, she had dismissed it as gossip.
“Around midnight, I just decided to go to bed and I said, ‘Well Lord, I give you my husband, take care of him. I’m so tired, I have to go to bed.’ Then in the morning, I woke up very early, and I received a phone call from someone from the State Department who said – ‘Look Berta, I’m calling you to tell you that your husband is flying right now in an airplane together with 221 political prisoners, and they’re going to Washington’,” she said.
“And I just started screaming! Imagine at six in the morning, I was just waking up everyone in the house.”
When Valle, a former journalist, could finally breathe normally, she asked the State Department if she should also make her way to Washington from Miami, where she is now based.
They said yes and she did. The rest of that day is a blur, she says.
“I just remember how incredibly relieved I was and how grateful. For me it was a miracle. I was expecting Félix to get out in maybe three, four years. And it had happened.”
Maradiaga’s release came after years of escalating repression by Nicaragua’s five-term President Daniel Ortega – who also stripped the former prisoners of their Nicaraguan nationality while they were in the air, en route to the US.
The authoritarian leader has imprisoned dozens of opposition figures and activists, particularly in the lead up to the last elections in November 2021. Many were accused of treason or involvement in “illicit activities” for having contact with foreign journalists or human rights’ organizations that the Ortega regime views as a threat.
“All the presidential candidates, plus the high ranking politicians arrested with me, were charged with the same accusation, ‘undermining national sovereignty, and conspiracy against national security,’” Maradiaga said. “The journalist and civil society leaders were charged with money laundering or producing fake news on cybercrimes and the less visible prisoners, like grassroots leaders were charged with a very diverse set of felonies.”
Prisoners were kept in what Maradiaga’s lawyer described as “horrific” conditions, with little food of poor quality, no reading materials – not even a bible – and many without drinking water available in their cells. Maradiaga told CNN that he lost 60 pounds in the first few months in prison, was kept in total darkness, and was not allowed to make a single phone call.
Valle and Maradiaga spoke to CNN earlier this month at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy about how they prepared for imprisonment, adjusting to their unexpected reunion, and balancing the good fight with family life.
Maradiaga had long been a thorn in the side of President Daniel Ortega for speaking out against the regime. As an opposition activist and civil society leader, he spoke out relentlessly against the regime’s crackdown on dissent.
Maradiaga told CNN that he had clues in the lead up to his release that something was happening – he just didn’t know what.
“The conditions in the prison were terrible the first year and then towards the end of 2022, the other prisoners and myself started to have certain small prison conditions changed. For example, finally, after almost two years, I got – for the first time – on a phone call with my daughter, whom I had not seen for three years. We were also given food and encouraged to eat like they [the prison guards] wanted us to put on weight.”
“Then, on February 8, a guard came to our cell and said, ‘Dress!’ He gave me some clothing and then we boarded a bus, handcuffed, with no information. And then I arrived at the airport with the other prisoners from 11 different detention centers,” he recounted.
Maradiaga spotted an American diplomat at the airport who he had worked with before and that was when he realized he and the other prisoners were being flown to the United States.
“I got on my knees. I kissed the floor because I knew it was going to be a long time until my next return to Nicaragua, which will happen – I give you my word it will happen – and I boarded the plane,” he says defiantly.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at the time that the decision to release the individuals, some of whom had spent years in prison, was “a unilateral decision that the Nicaraguan government took.”
The prisoners were made to sign a document acknowledging their willingness to fly to the United States and boarded a flight to Dulles International Airport in the early hours of February 9.
“It was the Nicaraguan government that decided to offer the opportunity to these individuals to travel to the United States,” Price said. “We agreed that we would of course receive them.”
Maradiaga expected to be imprisoned – or worse – when he returned to Nicaragua in 2019, after a year in exile in the US.
As he saw other voices of dissent being arrested and thrown in prison, he set out to prepare his family for what could happen by recording a series of videos and instructions to sustain his wife and daughter if he were to suddenly disappear.
“When I received the notice of the attorney’s office that I needed to show myself, I had a call with Berta that we both recall perfectly. I told her that I was going to be arrested, but there was a big chance that I was going to be disappeared,” he said.
“So, I had to film a video – probably the hardest thing I’ve done – to try to explain to my six-year-old daughter, that if I got killed, that it was because of my principles and ask her to forgive me for that decision. But that it was the right thing to do.”
Maradiaga was ultimately arrested on June 8, 2021, having announced his intention to run for president four months earlier. He was investigated for various crimes and eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity,” according to his lawyer.
In those first few months, Valle was angry.
She said that she felt like her husband had abandoned her and their daughter, especially as she had to deal with her daughter asking for him every night. But over time, and through speaking to victims of the Ortega regime whom her husband had helped, her anger and disappointment were replaced by admiration, she says.
The videos Maradiaga had left for her ended up being a lifeline, she also said.
“He gave me all these instructions. He gave me, for example, the name of our international human rights lawyer, Jared Genser, who became my angel through all of this. He gave me the contacts of the Geneva Summit and other organizations, that he said I should contact to advocate for his release.”
They were not able to break our souls, say freed Nicaraguan political prisoners
Maradiaga credits his wife’s advocacy alongside the work of these international human rights organizations as being instrumental to his release. He explains how the international outcry these organizations cause often makes the prisoner too much of a problem for the dictatorship and that can lead to a release of some sort.
“It’s not a magic bullet, but I saw from every single interrogation, every single interview was about the names of organizations. They were so concerned about the meetings of the UN, meetings of the Geneva Summit, the Oslo Freedom Forum, they had huge reports of all the traveling or the advocacy that Berta was doing.”
Although Maradiaga says he’s not yet ready to talk about the “dark” conditions he faced while in prison, he credits his Catholic faith and deep sense of purpose as the factors that kept him going while he was detained.
“When you give suffering a purpose and meaning, suffering is not necessarily something that is less bearable, but at least has a meaning. Deep in my heart I always knew that it was a matter of time. I told myself, Mr. Ortega is close to his 80s, I have much more time than he does, but also more faith. And that’s the important part.”
While both Maradiaga and his wife are elated to be reunited, they admit that it hasn’t been easy – and that there is a lot of work for them to do, both individually and as a family.
“It’s been really interesting the last three months to have back Félix at home, especially because we were living for three years together with my mother-in-law and [daughter] Alejandra. We have our own dynamic in the house, and then Félix comes and the dynamics change,” Valle says.
She explains that she had been hoping that they would be able to pause and spend time together as a family once he was released but that the reality has been very different.
Maradiaga has had requests for hundreds of interviews and speaking engagements since the moment he landed in the US. Both feel pressure to seize the moment to draw attention to the fight for freedom in Nicaragua – and trying to heal themselves and their family at the same time is a tough road to navigate, they say.
“Every single day in freedom for me is a joy,” Maradiaga says. “To see my daughter, her smile, every morning is a miracle. When I see Berta, food – I’ve gained 30 pounds since November last year – the smells, the air, sometimes we take it for granted. But there are people around the world, they just see a ray of light, sunshine, as a gift.”
“On the other hand, every single day that I’m free, someone else is in prison. Every single day that I’m free, my country is suffering repression. So that’s why I have a sense of urgency. So that’s what’s next, to free Nicaragua,” he says.
On Saturday, Nicaraguan police said they were investigating several dioceses of the Catholic Church for allegations of money laundering, a day after local media reported that the bank accounts of parishes in the Central American country had been frozen. This comes just weeks after the National Assembly of Nicaragua voted to dissolve the local branch of the Red Cross, as part of an ongoing clampdown on groups seen as hostile to the Ortega government.
The regime also suspended ties with the Vatican in March, shortly after Pope Francis compared his administration to the Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
While he hasn’t yet had time to fully process his ordeal, Maradiaga is also aware of the need to juggle his commitment to fighting for freedom in Nicaragua with his personal healing.
“I think that dictators know that when they put people in prison, the human reaction is to come out with anger and bitterness,” he says.
“So in my case, I’ve been working very hard to do an audit of the heart, to try, so that my commitment to non-violence, my compassion, my commitment to civic resistance, remain untouched. It’s very important not to hate because if you want to build democracy and freedom out of hate, you will just replicate the same cycle.”
“Compassion doesn’t mean that we will not persecute crimes against humanity. But through the law, through the international system – not revenge – justice,” Maradiaga adds.
Maradiaga and Valle’s reunification has become a symbol of hope for many, and they also feel a responsibility to encourage that hope.
Both spoke at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in May, where Maradiaga was awarded the 2023 Courage Award.
In his speech, Maradiaga vowed to use his platform to not only fight for a free and democratic Nicaragua, but to campaign for the freedom of political prisoners around the world.
“This is an award that belongs to those Nicaraguans who live in a huge prison. Those Nicaraguans without a voice. Those Nicaraguans who only are asking for the protection of basic human rights and human dignity. So this award not only recognizes the struggle for freedom in my own nation, but amplifies the voices of the silenced,” he told the summit.
“Do not let anyone tell you that it is not possible to free Vladimir Kara-Murza. Do not let anyone know that it’s not possible to release our dear barefoot lawyer from China. Do not let anyone tell you that it’s not possible to walk in full freedom in Hong Kong and Venezuela, in Cuba, in Afghanistan,” he continued. Kara-Murza, a Russian rights advocate, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after criticizing the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Valle, who spoke alongside her husband at the summit, used the opportunity to urge other families of political prisoners to seek out help, and stressing the importance of taking time to rest.
“I like this phrase that says that I’m here because I stand on the shoulders of giants. It’s very important to look for help, look for organizations, people that have had some experience in the situation that everyone is facing – that helped me a lot. And also faith,” says Valle, a devout born-again Christian.
“After all this work that we do as human rights defenders, there’s a private life that also has to be taken care of. We have to take moments to rest, to think, to pray if you are religious, because it’s important to protect ourselves first and then try to do things for others,” Valle added.
