Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts

Thursday, January 6, 2011

LatAm's highest murder rates

Via Tim's great blog, your humble scribe gets to read this report from El Salvador's Contrapunto that crunches the numbers and shows us which LatAm countries are the most dangerous murder-wise. Here's the chart generated from the stats.......
...and here's your author's transalation of the Contrapunto article:

San Salvador: Latin American nations Honduras and El Salvador have the most murderous in the world, according to calculations made by Contraputno and based on  murders rates, the best true measure of the magnitude of the phenomenon. The murder rate indicates how many murders occur for every 100,000 inhabitants.


As things stand, at the end of 2010 Honduras had a murder rate of approximately 72.8 for every 100,000 inhabitants, while El Salvador had a murder rate of 71.


Erroneous data that an international news agency diffuses tries to put Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico as the most violent countries in Latin America and the world, however their murder rates are lower than those of Honduras and El Salvador.
In fact, although in Venezuela there were 17,600 homicides (in 2010), its murder rate is 67.6 for every 100,000 inhabitants, as its populatioon is 26 million. In Colombia the mruder rate is 35.7 and in Mexico the murder rate is 14.5 for every 100,000 inhabitants.


By contrasting the figures with nations at war, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, it is notable that their murder rates are lower than the Latin American countries mentioned. In Afghanistan the approximate murder rate was 14 and in Iraq, 18.


The world average murder rate is 8 per 100,000 inhabitants. Rates higher than 10 are considered epidemics by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Friday, December 3, 2010

HudBay Minerals (HBM.to): Great News! Pres/CEO David Garofalo to present next week


Hey there dudettes and dudes, do you live in the Montreal area? Do you follow the mining industry? Do you have Monday morning free? Well if so, IKN has the date for you! This excerpt from HudBay Minerals (HBM.to) NR out today gives us the lowdown:

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - 12/03/10) - HudBay Minerals Inc. ("HudBay", the "company") (TSX:HBM - News)(NYSE:HBM - News) announced today that David Garofalo, President and Chief Executive Officer, will be speaking on Monday, December 6, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. ET at the 2010 Desjardins Securities Basic Materials Conference held in Montreal, Quebec at Le Windsor. CONTINUES

Yes indeedy, you too can attend and find out stuff about this most fascinating of companies. And just in case the meeting gets a bit flat and you find the Q&A session at the end of Garofalo's presentation needs a bit of perking up, here's a bit of information you might like to quiz him on.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF LAWSUIT IN CANADA AGAINST MINING COMPANY RELATING TO KILLING OF MAYAN LEADER 
For immediate release: December 1, 2010 
Toronto, Canada and Guatemala City, Guatemala: Angelica Choc and her lawyers announced
today a lawsuit against Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals Inc. relating to the killing
of her husband, Adolfo Ich Chamán. On September 27, 2009, Adolfo Ich, a respected Mayan
Q’eqchi’ community leader and an outspoken critic of harms and rights violations caused by
mining activities in his community, was hacked and shot to death by security forces employed at
HudBay Minerals’ Fenix Mining Project in an unprovoked attack near the town of El Estor,
Guatemala. continues here
Interesting stuff, right? Well let's find out a bit more starting with the statement made by Angelina Choc, Adolfo's widow:
Angelica Choc’s Statement 
My name is Angelica Choc, and I am indigenous Mayan Q’eqchi’ from the community of La
Uníon, in the Municipality of El Estor, Republic of Guatemala. 
Just over a year ago, my husband, Adolfo Ich Chamán, was killed by security forces employed at the Fenix mining project in Guatemala – a mining project owned by Canadian company HudBay Minerals. In the afternoon of September 27, 2009, I watched my husband leave our house for the last time. I later learned that mine security forces had surrounded my husband, dragged him through a gap in a fence and hacked at him with machetes. Then the mine’s chief of security shot him in the neck at close range. This attack was unprovoked. My husband was a teacher, a community leader and a defender of indigenous Q’eqchi’ land rights. I believe he was killed because he spoke out about the rights violations caused by Canadian mining in Guatemala. I believe he was killed because he was encouraging communities to stay united against the harmful practices of the mining company. It is very painful to remember such shocking tragedy. The days since my husband was killed have been very hard. There has been no justice. The man who killed Adolfo remains free. And the mining company has not been held accountable. My five children have lost a father; I have lost my husband; and our community has lost a leader. We need justice for these losses. 
If my husband were here today, I know what he would say. He would say the same things he has been saying for years. He would say that our Q’eqchi’ communities are part of an ancient people. That we retain our own customs, traditions and values from the time before our grandfathers and grandmothers. He would say that we reject the way the mining company has operated in our community. That we demand justice for the harms that they have caused to us. And he would say that we must continue the struggle.
This past year has been a time for silence and for mourning; now the time for action has come.

And for further fun reading, check out the legal proceedings papers filed in Canada against HudBay this week.  So once HudBay (HBM.to) has finished their slick and positive presentation on Monday I'm sure you guys won't be short of a subject of healthy and spirited conversation. And then when it's all over, don't forget to tell David Garofalo to go fuck himself.


UPDATE: Jack Caldwell over at I Think Mining also examines the HudBay Fenix case today. Fortunately for the world his prose is far more measured than the IKN snarkfest, but Caldwell does finish with a flourish (and one this author thoroughly agrees with):
"HudBay says it is continuing to evaluate the property.  I bet that they, as many other Canadian mining companies, will choose to stay away from mining in Guatemala for the foreseeable future.  I for one would not buy shares in the hope of successful mining by Canadians in Guatemala."

Here's the whole I Think Mining post. It's well worth a read and Caldwell knows Guatemala as well, having recently been there on mining biz.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

What US mining companies do in Colombia

Top EngLang source for all things Colombia, Colombia Reports, brings us the news of how US mining companies congratulate far right wing paramilitary terrorists when they go around assassinating people. Here's an excerpt:

U.S. coal giant Drummond congratulated members of paramilitary organization AUC on the murder of two labor rights activists working for the Colombian branch of the company, a paramilitary testified Wednesday.
Drummond is involved in a lawsuit filed by victims of paramilitary violence that accuse the coal company of having given money to paramilitary organization AUC between 1999 and 2005, during which 116 civilians were killed in the region where the firm operates.
According to Spanish press agency EFE, the lawyer of one of the bosses of the demobilized AUC, extradited Rodrigo "Jorge 40" Tuvar Pupo, told press that his client admits responsibility for the murder of the unionists in 2001.
A second paramilitary, "Samario," said in the hearing that two Drummond executives congratulated Jorge 40 and Oscar Jose Ospino, alias "Tolemaida" on the crime in a meeting that took place after the double homicide, Caracol Radio reported.
The two victims, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya, were murdered in CONTINUES HERE

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Eight gold miners shot dead in Colombia

From AFP in Spanish here, or below excerpted from the always excellent Colombia Reports in English:

Eight gold miners were shot and killed late Wednesday in the department of Cauca when a group of camouflaged men opened fire on them as they exited the mine.

The mayor of Suarez, the municipality where the incident took place, said that the gunmen had fired indiscriminately upon ten miners who were leaving a gold mine, killing eight, wounding one, and leaving one missing, reports RCN Radio.

Authorities learned of the incident through the testimony of the only known survivor, who said he faked his death to escape.

Crime scene investigators and officials from Colombia's Prosecutor General's office, who have already arrived to the area to recover the bodies and begin their investigation, pointed towards the FARC's 30th Front as potential culprits.

However, according to a Colombian military official in the region, the incident is more likely the result of a dispute between local miners. "The forensic team has already arrived and begun their investigation, but we think that this is about a vendetta, about revenge between CONTINUES HERE

But don't worry, you can ignore facts and just remember what Franky "5 star hotels on foreign trips give you a great idea of the country" Holmes told you about Colombia: Ain't no pol risk in the mining industry no more. Right?

Monday, December 14, 2009

Blackfire translated: Canada's corrupt miners explained in real English

The Mex Files has taken up the cause of the scumbag miner that was up until recently operating in the Chiapas region of Mexico (until it decided that political assassinations were a smart hearts'n'minds operation, that is) and provides a useful translation of what they said compared to what it actually means. Here's the link.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

In the world of the corrupt Canadian miner....

....if you pay a bribe you are an innocent victim of extortion. A good job of reporting from G&M's Andy Hoffman. Excerpt:
In an interview, Blackfire president Brent Willis said the company thought the payments were being made to the town and to sponsor the annual fair, not to the mayor personally.

The company also thinks that Santa Claus exists, the tooth fairies really do come and take away those molars from under your pillows late at night and that thing about childbirth being painful can't be true cos storks bring them along in wicker baskets. But your not allowed to mention any of this in Canada, ya knowz, cos it upsets the mentally challenged sector of fine upstandin' citizens that think butter wouldn't melt in the mouth of its mining executives.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Would you like fries with that, sir?

So, it seems this band of Peruvians have been murdering people, extracting the fat from the bodies and then selling it for U$15,000 per litre. A direct translation from this news story in El Comercio today. And no, this is not a hoax. Enjoy.

Traffickers killed and sold human fat for U$15,000 per litre

Member of the band known as 'Los Pishtacos' confessed their crimes. They are attributed with the deaths of 60 rural dwelling people in Huánuco and Pasco.


Hilario Cudeña Simón, Segundo Castillejos Agüero, Marcos Veramendi Príncipe and Enadina Estela Claudio were arrested on Monday for the crime of homicide for payment and illegal association to commit crimes against the state.

The chief of the Dirincri police force, Eusebio Félix Murga , confirmed that the suspects lured their victims to quiet spots by deception where they decapitated them and then took them to laboratories to extract human fat from the dead bodies. Sometimes they even put together their own rudimentary labs.

"The fat was taken from the thoraxes and muscles" said Félix Murga.

The members of the group known as 'Los Pishtacos' are understood to have murdered 60 rural dwellers in Huánuco and Pasco and then sold their fat for a price of U$15,000 per litre to Europe.

"From the quantity of fat that has been sold, we can deduce there are many victims. The investigations continue because many people do not report the disappearances of family members."

According to police, the suspects admit to carrying out their crimes for around 30 years.

UPDATE: Better late than never, the English language newswires have decided to love this story, too. Here's Reuters, here's AP and here's AFP.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Meanwhile, for all you mineheads piling into Colombia juniors on the advice of corrupt Canadian brokerages without a second thought.....

.... just keep repeating that mantra of yours, dumbasses:

Colombia good...no risk...war over....no threat....moral investment
Colombia good...no risk...war over....no threat....moral investment
Colombia good...no risk...war over....no threat....moral investment
Colombia good...no risk...war over....no threat....moral investment
Colombia good...no risk...war over....no threat....moral investment

Photo stolen shamelessly from da boorev (complete with typo if you look carefully)


Report from LAHT:

BOGOTA – A dozen municipal council members have been killed so far this year in Colombia and more than 2,000 others have received threats from guerrillas and other illegal armed groups, officials said on Tuesday.

“Two councilors are kidnapped, attacks have been made against some 32 councilors and more than 2,000 councilors today have security measures known by the national government,” Colombian Federation of Councilors spokesman Fabio Estrada told Caracol Radio.

Colombia’s municipal council members must also deal with “a situation of neglect that affects their security,” Estrada said.

Over the weekend, a member of the city council in Villavicencio, the capital of Meta province, was killed during CONTINUES HERE
Here's one of about ten thousand reports on the connections between Uribe's gov't and far right wing death squads:

BOGOTA - Colombian prosecutors have decided to open an investigation into the alleged ties between Vice President Francisco Santos and right-wing militias
CONTINUES HERE

And especially for you guys that think Norte de Santander (GSL, VEN, plenty others) have no problems...

Irregular armed groups from Colombia have been active for years in Táchira, an Andean highlands state that borders the northeastern Colombian department of Norte de Santander.

DYODD dude, and while you're at it why not ask your financial advisor about the conspiracy of silence amongst mining analysts about the total lack of talk on political risk in Colombia?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I blame The Truman Show

Now this story you gotta see.
Wallace (no Gromit)

SAO PAULO, Brazil — In one murder after another, the "Canal Livre" crime TV show had an uncanny knack for being first on the scene, gathering graphic footage of the victim.

Too uncanny, say police, who are investigating the show's host, state legislator Wallace Souza, on suspicion of commissioning at least five of the murders to boost his ratings and prove his claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime. Police also have accused Souza of drug trafficking.

"The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police," state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos charged in an interview with The Associated Press.

The killings of competing drug traffickers, he said, "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show."

Souza denied all the criminal allegations and called them absurd, insisting that he and his son are being set up by political enemies and CONTINUES HERE

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Guatemala: President Alvaro Colom accused of murder by the murdered man

Check out this CNN report (extract below) that has Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, now dead, accusing the President of Guatemala of his death from beyond the grave and explaining why his President had him killed in meticulous, 18 minute detail in the youtube video that follows (it's part one of two, it's nine minutes long and it comes with good English subtitles...you can link thru to part two once it finishes).

Heavy, heavy stuff.

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(CNN) -- The Guatemalan government has dismissed allegations that it was behind the death of a lawyer who left a video saying President Alvaro Colom would be to blame if anything happened to him.

The lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was shot dead Sunday while bicycling in Guatemala City.

A video surfaced Monday in which Rosenberg -- seated behind a desk and speaking into a microphone -- linked Colom and an aide to his death.

"If you are watching this message," Rosenberg says on the video, "it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom, with help from Gustavo Alejos," the president's private secretary.

It was not immediately known when Rosenberg made the video. It turned up Monday after his funeral and was posted on YouTube and distributed to other media outlets by the newspaper El Periodico de Guatemala.

The government promptly responded, rejecting the assertions and saying they were meant to create "political chaos."

CONTINUES HERE

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Regarding Press Freedom: Mexico teaches 'em how to really gag the press

Carlos Ortega Melo Samper, QEPD

After my rant about the BS lies being perpetrated by rank amateur journalists serving up cherrypicked "facts" and one-sided crap in Bolivia yesterday, today it's worth checking out real tales of high-order press gagging in Latin America. It's called "kill the reporter" and it does tend to keep them quiet afterwards.

Carlos Ortega Melo Samper was shot to death on Monday in the northern Durango region of Mexico. He had recently published a report outlining corruption in the local municipality in question. Furthermore, he clearly feared for his life, as on April 29th he wrote a letter to his newspaper, Tiempo (de Durango), in which he wrote that he had been threatened by the municipal President of Durango, Martín Silvestre Herrera, and two other local government associates of the municipal president, Juan Manuel Calderón Herrera and Salvador Flores Triana. The letter was not published in the newspaper, perhaps under instructions from the now dead journalist. The newspaper editor has been quick to point out that the case is not connected to organized crime, but political corruption and graft.

Meanwhile, Prensa Latina has published the list of 11 journalists murdered in Latin America in the first three months of 2009. The 11 unfortunates now joined by Carlos Ortega Melo Samper include three from Mexico, two from Colombia, two from Venezuela, two from Honduras, one from Guatemala and one from Paraguay......and none in Bolivia.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Lessons in human rights, Colombian style

Proposed design of the new school gates

Style one: Aida Quilcue is the head of the Colombian indigenous movement that recently organized the national protest march known as the 'minga'. For her own protection she travels in a 4x4 SUV with polarized glass windows. Today she wasn't traveling in her car, but her husband Edwin Legarda was. Here's what happened according to AP:

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Soldiers at a rural roadblock on Tuesday shot and killed the husband of an indigenous leader who has organized anti-government marches.

Edwin Legarda, 34, was driving a Toyota SUV at about 4 a.m. near an indigenous reserve in western Colombia when the soldiers opened fire. One of four other people in the vehicle was lightly wounded, said Vicente Otero, a spokesman for the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council.

Legarda died at the San Jose Hospital in nearby yadayada continues here

And hey! Guess what? Justice is bound to be meted out on the Colombian national soldiers who thought they'd liquidated one of their government's strongest opposition leaders becasue the army has opened "an internal enquiry" over the matter.


Style Two: This could only happen in Colombia and is so bizarre it's difficult to capture the essence of the weirdness involved. The country is actually opening a "School for Human Rights" that will be run by....wait.....roll on the drums.....The Colombian National Armed Forces. Yep, the same guys who use that cool "false positives" concept of murdering innocent civilians to get their FARC bodycount up high enough for extra weekend leave are opening a school to teach the rest of Latin America about Human Rights! It's like getting Josef Stalin to stand up for the rights of Soviet intellectuals, or inviting the Mansons to babysit for a few hours.

Colombia is trying to justify this unfunny joke by saying it has just completed the "deepest purge in its military history" and my how deep they went! They managed to lose a full twenty-seven soldiers from their ranks due to iffy human rights records. So we are supposed to assume that the 89,973 military types left in Colombia's armed forces have never committed any one of the thousands of recorded cases of extrajudicial killings ...it was those naughty 27 who needed their bottoms spanking.

Now that Colombia's army is whistle-clean it can teach the rest of the region all about how to be caring on the battlefield. Or in its own words, it will be "the leading body in military doctrine for the hemisphere".

I fear the worst.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Death in Peru: The Pandora's Box is opening

Ever wondered what a Peruvian drug baron looks like?

In this post on Friday, I told you about the very strange goings on in the La Libertad region of Peru, with district mayors accused of murdering a gov't employee because he wouldn't join in with the drug money scam operating in the locality.

Well, it looks like this story might blow the lid off one of the long-standing truths so far held unaccounted in Peru. The Sanchez-Paredes family have long been "suspected" of being narcos, and I put the word suspected in inverted commas because only someone with no idea of all things Peru and mining thinks they're innocent. The scam has been going on for years, and the Peruvian fiscals have always been on their tail without actually doing anything concrete. The reason is that the kickbacks go very high up in the Peruvian justice and gov't system, and nobody wants the S-P family to go under and start talking. I mean NOBODY.

The Sanchez-Paredes own two mines in the La Libertad region, namely Comarsa and San Simon, and these mines have been an integral part of the drug running operation. It's a long story, and if you're proficient in Spanish just Google the names already provided and find out as much as you want about the whole thing (much ink has been spilled), but basically the operation is suspected as running as follows:

1) The mine provides legitimate cover to import the necessary chemicals for cocaine production.

2)
The cocaine makes its way to the USA via Mexico


3) The unlaundered dollars return to Brazil, where they're exchanged for gold bullion mined by artisan 'garimpeiro' miners.

4)
The gold is smuggled into Peru via the highly perforated border with Brazil, where it is thrown onto the heap leaches at San Simon and Comarsa.


5)
The mine then "produces" the gold bought in Brazil and the drug money is laundered, spun-dry and clean as a whistle. (It's widely understood by the Peru mining scene that the ore grades and throughput tonnage at the two mines are not enough to produce the quantity of gold that they do).


But it seems like there's a big development about to take place in the Huamachuco murder case that might just change everything. Tonight Peruvian investigativeTV show "El Cuarto Poder" (The Fourth Power) is going to show a video of a town hall meeting featuring the mayor of Sangorán, Santos Ruíz Guerra (the man accused of the original murder) telling the meeting that there will be no more mining concessions authorised in the San Simón sector, the decision being by popular demand.

The finger is being pointed even more directly at the Sanchez-Paredes family now, and threatens to spread the scandal into a nationwide affair. And as a bit of a gossip exclusive, your ear-to-the-ground Otto can reveal that all this comes at a time when the Sanchez family is looking to float the San Simon mine in a public offering in the USA (names can be provided, but not on blog). To be frank, I think the last thing they need right now is exposure to SarbOx rules.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Death in Peru

Panorama of the District of Sanagorán

Tonight we bring you a story from "The Other Peru". Extrajudicial killings and cover-ups, corrupt government officials, death by poisonings, police corruption, mob rule and drug trafficking. All the ingredients that would make for international headlines in any Latin American country not deemed "investor friendly" by the North.

This is the Peru that long-suffering Peruvians want stamped out, and this story of complicity between government officials, police and large amounts of drug money is one that is quietly repeated up and down the country. This particular sordid tale has only unraveled because one man went too far and was denounced by locals demanding justice in the face of official indifference, and they had to literally riot before anyone from the National gov't took notice.

The cast of characters


1) Santos Ruíz Guerra, aged 35.....
.... the Mayor of Sanagorán, a district of La Libertad region, Peru. Suspected of murder, illegal financial activities and narcotrafficking.

Location of Sanagorán

2) Santos Sabino Cerna, aged 19, hired assassin.
Now dead, presumed murdered by poisoning. The local police force are strongly suspected of his death.

3) Marcelino Yupanqui Pacheco, aged 45, typist or topograph (depending on conflicting reports in local and national media), native of the nearby town of Huamachuco. Murdered by being shot to death and decapitated, his body dumped in a ravine.

4) César Silva Urbizagastegui, Police Commander. Suspected of leading a corrupt local police force.

5) One angry mob

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The events

5th June 2008: Marcelino Yupanqui Pacheco, a local of the region, is reported dead in a ravine. The police state he died in a motorcycle accident and fell into a deep ravine.

16th June: Yupanqui's body is recovered from the ravine where it fell. The body had been decapitated (head still not found) and its arms cut off. A bullet wound was found in the torso .The autopsy fiscal later stated "I do not have the slightest doubt that this was a murder."

6th June to 5th August: Time passes. The police seem to do nothing and get nowhere with the investigation. The local population get agitated.

6th August: Locals capture and hand in to the local police Santos Sabino Cerna, aged 19.

Santos Sabino Cerna is handed in by locals

Santos then calmly confesses to helping murder Yupanqui by taking him to the scene of the crime on motorcycle. He also states that Santos Ruíz Guerra, the Mayor of Sanagorán, was the person who killed Yupanqui by shooting him twice in the head and once in the back. Two other people (as yet uncaptured) were at the crime scene, and between them the Mayor gave them between S/30,000 (about U$11,000) and S/35,000. Santos's share was S/15,000.

The motive of the crime was apparently to silence Yupanqui about the Mayor's financial dealings, almost certainly cocaine-related. Yupanqui had often complained to his wife (now widow) that he was hated by the Mayor and entourage because he refused to join in with his criminal activity.

An order for the arrest of Mayor Ruíz Guerra is issued. The mayor takes refuge with some 300 loyal locals in Sanagorán. The police do not execute the arrest order.

26th August: A mob congregates in Huamachuco town plaza and demands the arrest of the mayor as well as the arrest of the second in command at the municipality building, who they accuse of also being guilty of the murder. They also demand the resignation of the local police force commander, César Silva Urbizagastegui, alleging he is part of the corrupt gang. A 24 hour deadline is announced.

27th August: The mayor arrives from next door Sanagorán and hands himself in to the police at Huamachuco. The mayor is accompanied by a large crowd of Sanagorán supporters who protest his innocence. Local Huamachuco dwellers arrive, and fighting breaks out between the two groups. The Huamachuco locals then sack the police station and try to capture Mayor Ruíz Guerra in order to linch him.

Mayor Ruíz Guerra escapes along with the seven police officers on duty. The police station is destroyed and three police vehicles set on fire as well as the contents of the police station. Nineteen prisoners escape from jail, including Sabino Cerna. National police arrive the next morning to restore calm.

29th August (yesterday): Santos Sabino Cerna, the confessed assassin hired by Mayor Ruíz Guerra is allowed home after being recaptured. He complains of having been beaten and threatened by police, who want him to retract his confession. He shows his father two needle marks on his arm and says the police injected him with something. Minutes later he begins to feel unwell. Four hours later he is dead, showing all symptoms of having been poisoned. The autopsy is currently underway.

The case against the Mayor relied solely on the confession of the now dead Sabino Cerna. The mayor is currently being held in the coastal city of Trujillo while investigations continue.

UPDATE SATURDAY 30th: Cover up, what cover up? The official autopsy has said that Santos Sabino Cerna did not die of poisoning, but of pulmonary edema. I'm no doctor, but here's the wikipedia page to give a general idea, and it does say that the causes are "either due to direct damage to the tissue or a result of inadequate functioning of the heart or circulatory system." So what's a 19 year old doing with a suddenly inadequate heart? I mean, would you be suspicious of this diagnosis?

At the funeral procession, the 1,000 people attending gave authorities 10 days to bring some justice to this case, and included the reiterated demand for the resignation of the local police chief as one of their demands. So far there haven't been any more violent episodes, but you can bet money on there being further trouble if the Peruvian authorities continue sweeping this scandal under the carpet. It's not just Denmark that stinks sometimes.