UN maternity aid looted in Port-au-Prince as Haiti crisis deepens
A container carrying essential items for newborn babies and their mothers – including resuscitators and other critical supplies – was looted in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, aid agency UNICEF said in a statement, as gang violence and a humanitarian crisis worsen in the Haitian capital.
In addition to maternity and neonatal supplies, the looted container also held “early childhood development and education and water equipment,” UNICEF said. More than 260 humanitarian-owned containers at the port are now controlled by armed groups that breached the main port last week, the UN’s child agency added.
Three out of four women and children in the Port-au-Prince area do not have access to basic public health and nutrition, according to UNICEF. There are only two functional surgical operating facilities available in the capital. Six out of 10 hospitals across the country are unable to function due to electricity, fuel and medical supply shortages.
CNhttps://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/17/americas/haiti-unicef-child-aid-looted-intl-hnk/index.html
US pushes Haiti’s prime minister on transition as gang leader warns of ‘genocide.’
Henry landed in the US territory of Puerto Rico on Tuesday after days of speculation about his whereabouts.
He had been in Kenya last week to sign an agreement securing a Kenyan-led multinational mission to restore security in the Caribbean nation.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/06/americas/haiti-henry-us-elections-intl/index.html
Two Mexican mayoral candidates killed hours apart in same town
Armando Pérez, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), and Miguel Ángel Reyes, from the ruling left-leaning party, Morena, were both found dead in their personal vehicles having suffered gunshot wounds, the prosecutor said in two separate statements.
Pérez was found on Monday evening, while Reyes had been found a few hours earlier near the hospital where he worked as a doctor.
Both candidates were set to run in the elections on June 2.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/27/americas/mexico-mayor-candidates-killed-intl-latam/index.html
Nicaragua grants political asylum to former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli
Nicaragua said Wednesday it had granted political asylum to former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli days after Panama’s top court rejected an appeal to annul his prison sentence in a money laundering case.
According to a diplomatic note that Nicaragua’s government sent to Panama’s foreign ministry, Martinelli requested asylum because he “considered himself persecuted for political reasons and thinks that his life, physical integrity and safety are at imminent risk.”
Last July, Martinelli was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of more than $19.2 million after he was declared guilty, along with four other people, of money laundering in a case known as “New Business.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/07/americas/nicaragua-asylum-ricardo-martinelli-intl/index.html
Brazil’s ex-president Bolsonaro presented coup plot to military leaders, court documents allege
Former President Jair Bolsonaro presented top Brazilian military leaders with a plan to stage a coup after he lost the 2022 election, newly released court documents have alleged.
The country’s Supreme Court released the testimonies from former army commander Marco Antonio Freire Gomes and former air force commander Carlos de Almeida Baptista Jr. to the Brazilian Federal Police on Friday.
Bolsonaro allegedly presented the plan in a meeting on December 7, 2022, at the presidential palace in Brasilia.
Colombia decree suspends ceasefire with EMC armed group in three areas
Colombia will suspend its months-long ceasefire with the Estado Mayor Central (ECM) armed group in three provinces on Wednesday, a government decree said on Sunday, citing incidents of violence that broke the ceasefire.
The EMC - founded by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who reject the 2016 peace deal signed by that group - began talks with President Gustavo Petro's government last year, in a bid to end its part in Colombia's 60 years of war.
The ceasefire with the EMC went into place last October with a January deadline, before being extended through July 15.
