Bloody Latin America
A pre-candidate for mayor for an opposition political force was shot dead in a municipality in the department of Yoro. The victim, a businessman, was intercepted by quality hitmen while campaigning in several communities in the town of Morazán. The politician was a member of the National Party of Honduras, led by the wife of former president Juan Orlando Hernández, shamefully convicted in the United States of drug trafficking and other charges. Last Tuesday there was another political assassination in the municipality of Esparta, belonging to the coastal department of Atlántida. There, another mayoral candidate, also for the National Party, was shot and killed while riding a motorcycle.
The National Police reinforced security this Sunday in the municipality of Catacamas, the largest in Honduras, where two shootings—both in maybe drug trafficking-related bars—have resulted in the death of four and two citizens, respectively. One of them was a respected cattle rancher, whose employees and associates intended to take revenge on their account. The security forces demanded the closure of businesses because of the crisis. It is common for Hondurans fleeing to the United States to cite violence and extortion as causes forcing them to leave their homeland. The Central American nation is also marked by the cancer of corruption, as evidenced by the aforementioned condemnation of Hernández and the denounced links of the ruling party with drug trafficking as well.
SourceEcuador
Last Friday, a high-ranking military officer was massacred by two hitmen in the hyper-violent Guayaquil, when he was driving near the dangerous Penitenciaría del Litoral, one of the prisons located on the outskirts of the city, which houses some 12,000 prisoners. “Painfully the colonel is intercepted by some subjects, and the assassins reach him about 200 meters before reaching the Penitentiary, we have more than 20 ballistic indications on the left side and about three more on the driver's side,” said a police spokesman. “With this reality, it is clear that we are living in an internal armed conflict” in the country, said President Daniel Noboa, although his controversial security strategy has failed to sufficiently appease organized crime, particularly in cities like Duran and Guayaquil, both in the coastal province of Guayas, a regular port of departure for drugs destined for the European and U.S. markets, mainly.
This Sunday it was reported that in the same Penitenciaría del Litoral three inmates were found dead in different wards, with the circumstances still undisclosed. In October 2023, in the same prison, six Colombians were found dead hanged. They were charged with the murder of a presidential candidate in August of that year. Returning to current events, a three-year-old girl was killed along with two adults in an armed attack in the coastal province of El Oro, the southernmost of the country. The Ecuadorian coast, instead of being bathed by the blue waters of the Pacific, is bathed in blood. In Manabí, bordering Guayas, an 11-month-old baby was killed in an attack against his family last Thursday (please don´t forget the four minors murdered and burned last December in Guayaquil). In Samborondón, another Guayas canton, three Ecuadorians and a Ghanaian were shot dead after an armed attack last Saturday in a settling of scores. January's homicide records were the worst ever for the first month of the year per available statistics.
SourceMore on the $LIBRA saga via X
Lawyer @agustindrombola has filed a complaint against Javier Milei and $LIBRA @JMILEI 🇦🇷
— banditxbt (@banditxbt) February 16, 2025
Fraud, business dealings incompatible with public office, price manipulation, and financial crimes.
Here we go. pic.twitter.com/nvwvBy7qDQ
Javier Milei is trying to recover from a political black eye as prominent members of the crypto world point fingers at each other over the Argentine president’s aborted endorsement of a memecoin https://t.co/Y36ykyrd8O
— Bloomberg (@business) February 17, 2025
