Skip to main content

Home/ Americas-MOAS/ Group items tagged Judge

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
luckangeloja

Judge calls for harsher penalties for drug offenders | Antigua Observer Newspaper - 0 views

antiguaobserver.com/r-penalties-for-drug-offenders

Antigua and Barbuda Drugs Crime Judge Penalties Misuse of Drugs Act

shared by luckangeloja on 24 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Justice Keith Thom, who yesterday jailed a woman for three years and fined her $300,000 for cocaine possession, said authorities should increase the penalties for indictable drug offences.
  • The judge said drug trafficking is “a serious thriving trade” thus penalties need to be severe to deter traffickers and drug mules.
  • In handing down the sentence on Canadian visitor Maria Cathrina Bertrand, Justice Thom highlighted that under The Misuse of Drugs Act, the court could not impose a sentence exceeding seven years in prison.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The court, however, has the authority to also fine the person convicted of drug possession where the quantity of drug exceeds two kilograms (4.4 pounds).
  • In addition to being jailed for three years, Bertrand has to pay the $300,000 fine within a year or be jailed for a further 12 months at Her Majesty’s Prison.
  • The woman’s lawyer, Steadroy “Cutie” Benjamin, begged the court to show mercy to his client who is a first time offender, still a youth, having celebrated her 33rd birthday last week, and the mother of two young daughters, ages 10 and eight.
  • Benjamin said the woman is of a strong Christian background, but was forced to take a chance with the drug because she did not want her children to suffer.
  • luckangeloja on 24 Oct 16
     
    This article was about a specific crime about a woman that was found with six and a quarter pound of cocaine. She was fined $300,000 for an amount that was value around $300,000. Even after this, the judge of the case said that consequences for drug busts should include more penalties than they already do. This woman who was found with the cocaine was a first time offender and of strong Christian background, and would be someone perfect for possible alternatives to fines and jail-time, such as militaristic or service options.
tristanpantano

The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency - 2 views

www.cia.gov/...nu.html

nicaragua politics latin america history

shared by tristanpantano on 25 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • 5,966,798 (July 2016 est.)
  • mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white 17%, black 9%, Amerindian 5%
  • Despite being one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Nicaragua has improved its access to potable water and sanitation and has ameliorated its life expectancy, infant and child mortality, and immunization rates. However, income distribution is very uneven, and the poor, agriculturalists, and indigenous people continue to have less access to healthcare services. Nicaragua's total fertility rate has fallen from around 6 children per woman in 1980 to just above replacement level today, but the high birth rate among adolescents perpetuates a cycle of poverty and low educational attainment. Nicaraguans emigrate primarily to Costa Rica and to a lesser extent the United States. Nicaraguan men have been migrating seasonally to Costa Rica to harvest bananas and coffee since the early 20th century. Political turmoil, civil war, and natural disasters from the 1970s through the 1990s dramatically increased the flow of refugees and permanent migrants seeking jobs, higher wages, and better social and healthcare benefits. Since 2000, Nicaraguan emigration to Costa Rica has slowed and stabilized. Today roughly 300,000 Nicaraguans are permanent residents of Costa Rica - about 75% of the foreign population - and thousands more migrate seasonally for work, many illegally.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century
  • The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century
  • Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras
  • Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America and the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has widespread underemployment and poverty. Textiles and agriculture combined account for nearly 50% of Nicaragua's exports.
  • $31.33 billion (2015 est.) $29.98 billion (2014 est.) $28.64 billion (2013 est.)
  • destructive earthquakes; volcanoes; landslides; extremely susceptible to hurricanes volcanism: significant volcanic activity; Cerro Negro (elev. 728 m), which last erupted in 1999, is one of Nicaragua's most active volcanoes; its lava flows and ash have been known to cause significant damage to farmland and buildings; other historically active volcanoes include Concepcion, Cosiguina, Las Pilas, Masaya, Momotombo, San Cristobal, and Telica
  • 2.98 million (2015 est.)
  • 6.1% (2015 est.)
  • the overwhelming majority of the population resides in the western half of the country, with much of the urban growth centered in the capital city of Managua; coastal areas also show large population clusters
  • 9% of GDP (2014)
  • 0.9 physicians/1,000 population (2014)
  • 15 September 1821 (from Spain)
  • highest court(s): Supreme Court or Corte Suprema de Justicia (consists of 16 judges organized into administrative, civil, criminal, and constitutional chambers) judge selection and term of office: Supreme Court judges elected by the National Assembly to serve 5-year staggered terms subordinate courts: Appeals Court; first instance civil, criminal, and military courts
  • $12.22 billion (2015 est.)
  • $5,000 (2015 est.) $4,800 (2014 est.) $4,700 (2013 est.)
  • 29.6% (2015 est.)
  • 1 (2015)
  • transshipment point for cocaine destined for the US and transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing
  • tristanpantano on 26 Oct 16
     
    This article gave a lot of background on Nicaragua, and a lot of information about their current economy.
krystal62

Nicaragua Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption - 5 views

www.heritage.org/...nicaragua

nicaragua economy gdp

shared by krystal62 on 01 May 16 - No Cached
  • Anti–free market policies
  • populism
  • Mostly Unfree
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • long-term
  • subject to substantial political interference.
  • Poor protection of property rights
  • widespread corruption
  • domestic access
  • Agricultural goods and textile production account for 50 percent of exports.
  • second-poorest nation in the Americas.
  • Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian
  • the rule of law in Nicaragua.
  • Sandinista judges
  • Private property rights (especially those of foreign investors) are not protected effectively, and contracts are not always secure.
  • . The growth of public spending has outstripped revenue expansion and is likely to continue in 2016.
  • inefficient and inflexible labor market
  • underemployed
  • used cars are restricted
  • The high cost of long-term financing continues to hinder more dynamic private-sector growth.
rachelramirez

The Nicaraguan Firewall: How the Narco Gangs Have Breached It - TIME - 0 views

content.time.com/...0,8599,2116269,00.html

Nicaragua gangs corruption

shared by rachelramirez on 04 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • The Nicaraguan Firewall: How the Narco Gangs Have Breached It
  • Nicaraguan military and police leaders insist they've created a "firewall" against the western hemisphere's more than $40 billion drug trade and the ultra-violent narco-gangs pushing in from both the north and the south.
  • the country is a leader in drug busts and has managed to reduce its homicide rate to the second-lowest in the region behind Costa Rica.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Roberto Orozco, a Nicaraguan security expert at the Managua-based Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policy (IEEPP). "We had already identified narco-penetration in lower levels of government, where municipal and local officials have been bought by organized crime. This is especially true along the principal drug-trafficking routes, where we've seen the worst corruption among police and local judges.
  • the drug gangs terrorizing Central America's northern triangle are moving into the rest of the isthmus.
  • Substitute Magistrate Julio César Osuna, who was arrested May 27, is accused of using his government post to smuggle drugs, launder money and sell fake Nicaraguan IDs to foreign drug traffickers.
  • Those who know the inner workings of the CSE say it's highly unlikely that Osuna, who is accused along with 21 other people who are not public officials, was working alone inside the government.
  • In the final months of Ortega's first Sandinista government in 1990, when party apparatchiks were busily divvying up confiscated properties and other spoils of their decade-long revolution, the National Assembly quietly passed a decree granting Nicaraguan citizenship to some 600 foreign revolutionaries, extremists and other political misfits who were being harbored by Nicaragua as an act of "solidarity.
  • While the Sandinistas' strong central government has slowed the narco-contamination of Nicaragua, the country's democratic institutions are extremely weak and vulnerable to corruption, analysts warn. It remains to be seen how far police will go — or be allowed to snoop — behind the thick curtain of secrecy that has shrouded the Sandinista government for the past five years
  • rachelramirez on 04 Jul 16
     
    Although Nicaragua is doing a good job fending off corruption considering where the country is located, corruption is beginning to seep into the government. Based off of this article it seems as if it would be a nearly impossible task to keep Nicaragua from turning into a mini-Honduras or El Salvador, where corruption and gangs rule. Additionally, the government seems divided at the higher and lower levels, as the lower levels of the government have been taken over by gang members, and they have allowed terrorists from numerous countries to gain citizenship. It seems as though the best course of action that Nicaragua could take is unifying the government, and supporting the economy so that the government does not have to play into gang's desires.
Ellie McGinnis

BBC News - Guatemala Rios Montt genocide trial to resume in 2015 - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-latin-america-24833642

guatemala genocide politics crime latin america

shared by Ellie McGinnis on 10 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Gen Rios Montt, 87, was convicted of genocide and war crimes in May and sentenced to 80 years in jail.
  • A court official said that the judges were busy with other cases in 2014, but would resume the trial in January 2015.
  • The guilty verdict had been hailed by the victims and human rights groups as "historic". It was also the first time a former head of state had faced genocide charges in a court within his own country. But weeks later, Guatemala's top court ruled that the trial had been flawed.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Human rights group Amnesty International called the ruling a "devastating blow for the victims of the serious human rights violations committed during the conflict".
  • An estimated 200,000 people were killed in Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, the vast majority of them indigenous Mayans. Gen Rios Montt's 17 months in power are believed to have been one of the most violent periods of the war.
  • He is accused - among other charges - of ordering the deaths of 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his time in office in 1982-83. He has denied any responsibility.
1 - 5 of 5
Showing 20▼ items per page