July 21, 2010
Mexico – Graffiti message in Juarez warns of another car bomb
Guatemala – How Guatemala’s fragile democracy nearly went `narco’
France – Strike to cause major disruption in Paris airports: official
Guinea – Guinea Authorities Uncover Plot to Destablize Election
Russia – Police: 2 killed in attack on Russian hydropower station
Peru – U.S. Offers $10 Million in Rewards for Peruvian Rebel Chiefs
Mexico
A graffiti message found Sunday night in Juárez warned U.S. law enforcement that another car bombing will occur if they do not arrest corrupt federal police agents. The unsigned message told the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate authorities that support the Sinaloa drug cartel. Otherwise, there will be another car bomb placed in Juárez to kill federal police, the threat stated. “If in 15 days, there is no response with detention of corrupt federales, we will put a car with 100 kilos of C4,” the message read. Composite 4, or C-4, was the plastic explosive used for an attack that killed three people Thursday in Downtown Juárez, according to military officials in Juárez. FBI officials in El Paso said they will not investigate the nature of the message because it is in a foreign country.
Guatemala
For a 17-day period that ended last month, Guatemala seemed to be falling under the direct control of suspected mobsters. A lawyer leading a posse of unsavory characters became the attorney general and started dismantling the state’s legal apparatus. Central America’s most populous country teetered on the edge of “going narco.” Although the appointment of Conrado Reyes as attorney general has now been annulled and Guatemala’s fragile democracy survived the ordeal, it’s still on a tightrope, advocates for democracy and human rights say. A rugged coffee-growing nation of 13.5 million people, 40 percent of them disenfranchised Mayan Indians, Guatemala has largely been off the world’s radar screen. But as U.S. anti-narcotics aid poured into Mexico and Colombia, bad guys flooded the region in between. Guatemala became a prime destination. While institutions of state appear to function, corruption is rampant, and narcotics are pervasive. Some 275 to 385 tons of South American cocaine transits Guatemala each year, almost enough to satisfy all U.S. demand, according to a March estimate by the State Department. Syndicates from neighboring Mexico brought violence to the steps of power. Cartel enforcers demanding an end to a crackdown on organized crime dumped four decapitated human heads on the steps of Congress and other downtown Guatemala City sites on June 10.
France
An air traffic controller strike due Wednesday will force the cancellation of one in five flights from the main Paris hub Roissy and half of all flights from the smaller Orly airport, officials said. France’s DGAC civil aviation authority also warned in a statement that stormy weather forecast for the day of the strike was likely to add to the travel disruption and advised potential travellers to contact their airlines. French unions have called on air traffic controllers to go on strike from Tuesday evening until Thursday morning to protest plans to integrate French air traffic control into a European system.
Guinea
Guinean authorities say they have uncovered a plot to destabilize the second round of voting in the presidential election meant to return the country to civilian government. Guinea Prime Minister Jean Marie Dore said Saturday that authorities had uncovered what they suspect was an armed plot to disrupt the second round of voting in country’s landmark presidential election. Addressing the army, Colonel Nouhou Thiam said those responsible have been arrested and are talking to authorities about their plans to disrupt the second round of voting. He says they were young. He says they are being held in good conditions. Colonel Thiam says the winner of the elections will emerge democratically. He says if you are in the army and want to engage in politics, abandon your uniform because the army must remain neutral. The presidential poll is intended to return the country to civilian government, after a military coup in December 2008. Members of the military and the transitional government organizing the elections were barred from running.
Russia
Two carloads of assailants attacked a hydroelectric station in southern Russia early Wednesday, killing two workers and setting off bombs. The attack took place in Kabardino-Balkariya, one of the republics in Russia’s restive Caucasus region where clashes with insurgents are frequent. A spokesman for the republic’s police, Adlan Kakakuyev, said two cars carrying a half-dozen assailants attacked the Baksan plant at about 4:30 a.m., killing two guards and wounding three others in gunfire. The attackers then set off explosives in several parts of the 25-megawatt plant and detonated them before fleeing. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. The explosions and subsequent fire destroyed two of the plant’s three power units, but there was no danger of flooding downriver, the state news agency ITAR-Tass cited power company RusGidro as saying. The dam and plant are on the Baksan River, a waterway that flows into the Terek, a major regional river.
Peru
The United States is offering rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture of two leaders of the remnants of Peru’s Shining Path guerrilla group. Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala, known as “Comrade Artemio,” and Victor Quispe Palomino, alias “Comrade Jose,” command Shining Path contingents in the Upper Huallaga Valley and in the Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers, or VRAE, region, respectively. The State Department has added the two Peruvians to the U.S. list of most-wanted drug traffickers, joining the leaders of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, as well as the chiefs of Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel group. Quispe “is the current leader of the Sendero remnants based in the VRAE, and oversees all of its illicit activities. These activities include extortion, murder, and drug trafficking,” the State Department said. “The drug trafficking activities of this faction of Sendero include taxes/extortion payments charged to local drug traffickers in exchange for security of cocaine labs and cocaine shipments made throughout the VRAE. Furthermore, currently Sendero owns several coca plots and cocaine base laboratories in the VRAE,” the State Department said.
