Skip to main content

Home/ Americas-MOAS/ Group items tagged candidate

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
redavistinnell

Exclusive: leading candidate to be Commonwealth secretary general alleged to have recei... - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...ainst-Antiguan-government.html

leading candidate commonwealth fraud government politics foreign policy caribbean

shared by redavistinnell on 16 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Exclusive: leading candidate to be Commonwealth secretary general alleged to have received $1.4m in fraud against Antiguan government
  • Sir Ronald Sanders, now the Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to Washington, apparently received monthly payments of £10,000 while serving as High Commissioner in London, according to a report ordered by his country’s government but never subsequently published.
  • Sir Ronald served as High Commissioner to Britain from 1982 until 1987 and then again from 1996 until 2004. Soon after he returned to London, the Queen made him a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). She proceeded to award him a knighthood in June 2002. Two years later, Antigua’s then government commissioned an investigation by Robert Lindquist, a Canadian forensic accountant, after a routine audit suggested the state was overpaying a loan.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The Lindquist report named Sir Ronald as a “person of interest” in this alleged fraud which cost Antigua $14 million (£9.3 million) between 1997 and 2006.
  • Mr Lindquist found that the monthly surplus of $203,594 – amounting to 40 per cent of Antigua’s total revenue from petrol sales tax - was shared between various beneficiaries, apparently including Sir Ronald. The architect of the alleged fraud was the late Bruce Rappaport, a S
  • A fax dated 28 November 1997 appears to show that Rappaport opened an account with the Bank of Bermuda called the “IHI Debt Settlement Co Account”.
  • The document says that “funds received monthly from the Government of Antigua” amounting to $403,334 were to be used to repay IHI to the tune of $199,74
  • Including funds that were channelled through Bellwood Services – a Panamanian company owned by Sir Ronald until 1996 – the Lindquist report says that he appeared to receive a total of $1,398,492 (£933,000).
  • But on 29 June 2015, Antigua’s police commissioner wrote to Sir Ronald’s lawyers saying this should never have happened, adding: “I hereby confirm that the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda has no interest in interviewing Sir Ronald Sanders and that there are no current or pending investigations that involve him in any way.”
  • Antigua's current government has described the Lindquist report as “riddled with hearsay, rumour and conjecture” and the result of a “partisan witch-hunt” launched by a previous administration. Sir Ronald has never been shown the report.
  • redavistinnell on 16 Jun 16
     
    This article shows the corruption with in the Antiguan government. There is an obvious gap between the government officials in Antigua and Barbuda and the people. One of the biggest problems facing Antigua's government is how corrupt it is.  
rachelramirez

Political Crisis Looms in Nicaragua in Run-Up to Elections | Inter Press Service - 0 views

www.ipsnews.net/...caragua-in-run-up-to-elections

Nicaragua elections

shared by rachelramirez on 26 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Political Crisis Looms in Nicaragua in Run-Up to Elections
  • The seventh consecutive nomination of Daniel Ortega as the governing party’s candidate to the presidency in Nicaragua, and the withdrawal from the race of a large part of the opposition, alleging lack of guarantees for genuine elections, has brought about the country’s worst political crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990.
  • If he wins his term of office will be extended to 2021, by which time he will have served a record breaking 19 years, longer even than that of former dictator Anastasio Somoza García whoruled the country for over 16 years.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The CSJ determined in 2011 that an article in the constitution banning indefinite reelection was a violation of Ortega’s right to be a candidate
  • Earlier the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) cancelled the legal status of the leadership of the Independent Liberation Party (PLI), the largest member of the Coalition, and handed over PLI representation instead to a political faction supportive of the FSLN.
  • According to López Maltez and other analysts, Ortega has taken control of all government branches, and is therefore practically assured of victory at the ballot boxes in November.
  • Social scientist Nicolás López Maltez, a member of Nicaragua’s Academy of Geography and History, said that the way Ortega has pursued his presidential aspirations is unparalleled in Central America in the past 150 years.
  • Ortega has followed sound macroeconomic policies and this is recognised by both domestic and international organisations.
  • Opposition sectors claim the results of municipal elections in 2008 and of the 2011 general elections were fraudulent. Observers from the U.S. Carter Center and from the European Union observers/ said they lacked transparency.
  • But in May Ortega decided not to invite international or local electoral observers, whom he referred to as “shameless scoundrels.”
  • Humberto Meza, who holds a doctorate in social sciences, said that Ortega’s stratagems to perpetuate himself in power “will drastically affect the legitimacy of the elections,” no matter how high his popularity rating.The Supreme Court “is condemning a vast number of voters to non participation in the electoral process,” he told IPS.
  • Meza said the concern expressed by the OAS secretary general and any pressure exerted by the international community, led by the United States, were unlikely to have “much impact” on Nicaragua’s  domestic crisis
  • rachelramirez on 26 Jun 16
     
    This article sheds light on the chaotic nature of elections in Nicaragua, and shows the vast amount of control the current president, Daniel Ortega, holds. In the past the United States and the European Union have monitored elections in Nicaragua, but were left saying that the elections lacked transparency. The elections for president this year will not involve the US or EU as the current president, and one of the few candidates in the race, will not allow the two powers back to monitor elections. If Daniel Ortega wins this election, and it appears that he most likely will, then he will be longest serving president Nicaragua has ever had. It appears that there needs to be greater action taken to assure the transparency of elections in the future, and help for Nicaraguans so they can be sure they have a fair government.
bennetttony

Nicaragua's New Boss, Same as the Old Boss | Americas Quarterly - 1 views

americasquarterly.org/...araguas-new-boss-same-old-boss

nicaragua politics foreign policy

shared by bennetttony on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • “The election is a farce, a mega-fraude is taking place and we cannot legitimize it."
  • In July, he banned 28 deputies of the Independent Liberal Party from running in the elections, including its leading presidential candidate, Eduardo Montealegre
  • In August, Ortega chose his wife, Rosario Murillo, for the vice-presidential ticket. “They have created a dynastic dictatorship …
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “Recent developments aimed at undermining the political opposition are simply a continuation of Ortega’s ongoing efforts to consolidate his control over all aspects of Nicaraguan political life
  • bennetttony on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article outlines the corruption of one of the candidates in the Nicaraguan presidential campaign.
bennetttony

Nicaragua president's running mate: his wife | Albuquerque Journal - 1 views

www.abqjournal.com/...nts-running-mate-his-wife.html

nicaragua politics president wife

shared by bennetttony on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • “That woman is the one who rules in the country. She is powerful,” said fruit vendor Roberto Mayorga. “If ‘the man’ dies, she’ll be there. She has been his shadow. There is nobody who can keep her from being next.”
  • She is said to run Cabinet meetings and many Nicaraguans credit her for social programs that have helped keep the ruling Sandinista party’s popularity ratings high.
  • And she’s equally reviled by government opponents, who see her presence on the ticket as another step in the 70-year-old Ortega’s push to maintain the couple’s grip on power in a country with a long and uncomfortable history of dynastic families.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “The Ortegas really seem to be intent on increasing the family’s control over much of Nicaraguan political, social and economic life …” he added. “And so this would be a way to really guarantee that sho
  • Critics accuse Ortega of blatantly rigging the system despite the fact he would likely win anyway.
  • “And mafia-style, he picks his wife to give her the kind of institutional power that she already had de-facto.”
  • bennetttony on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article shows how one of the candidates in the the presidential election in Nicaragua has his wife as a running mate so that they get what they want in the government.
bennetttony

How Ortega Took the Suspense Out of Nicaragua's Presidential Election - 0 views

www.worldpoliticsreview.com/...aragua-s-presidential-election

nicaragua

shared by bennetttony on 04 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • And we can already predict with absolute certainty that Daniel Ortega will be elected president. Again.
  • Since coming to power, the former Marxist rebel’s ideology has taken an idiosyncratic twist, blending elements of capitalism, populism, new age spirituality and, above all, the tendencies of an autocrat whose paramount objective is to remain in power
  • Next week’s election will mark the seventh time he runs for president, after having ruled the country from 1979 to 1985 as head of the junta.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The last time Ortega won, in 2011, the election results were vehemently rejected by the opposition, which declared that Ortega had become a dictator. The Carter Center said the elections lacked “the most basic guarantees for the integrity of the voting process.”
  • The decision to put her on the ticket formalizes what has already been a high-profile role for the first lady. She is the official government spokesperson, and as such the only government figure authorized to speak to the media. But her influence goes far beyond that.
  • Murillo plays a pivotal role in strengthening the Ortegas’ standing with women, which suffered enormously after he was accused in 1998 by his stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez, of sexually abusing her for many years, starting when she was a young girl.
  • Nicaraguans believe that Ortega, who is 70 years old and reportedly having health problems, is working to secure his family’s hold on power when he is ready to relinquish the rudder.
  • bennetttony on 04 Nov 16
     
    This article outlines how presidential candidate Ortega is taking advantage of the government in Nicaragua and how he plans on using it for his own benefit.
Javier E

Peace-Talk Critic Takes Lead in Colombia Presidential Vote - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-juan-manuel-santos-leads.html

colombia guerrilla war diplomacy

shared by Javier E on 26 May 14 - No Cached
  • “Colombians will have two options, between those who prefer an end to the war and those who want a war without end,” Mr. Santos said after the results were made public. His main challenger, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, a former treasury minister, received 29 percent of the vote, with more than 99 percent of polling stations counted, officials said. Mr. Santos received slightly more than 25 percent in the field of five candidates.
  • Mr. Santos, 62, had cast himself as the peace candidate and urged voters to empower him to finish talks he started in 2012 with the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
  • Mr. Zuluaga, 55, an ally of the right-wing former president, Álvaro Uribe, has been a harsh critic of the talks and could break them off if he becomes president.Colombia, a country of 47 million people, is one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America and has received billions of dollars in American aid in recent years to combat drug trafficking and guerrilla groups.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Mr. Zuluaga has charged that Mr. Santos is liable to concede too much to achieve peace, including allowing guerrilla leaders to skip serious punishment. He has said, however, that he would consider continuing the talks if the FARC stopped all criminal activity.Mr. Zuluaga’s closeness to Mr. Uribe has been a central element of his campaign. Mr. Uribe, a polarizing figure with a strong political base, backed Mr. Santos when he ran for president in 2010. But they later became fierce enemies, splitting over the peace talks, which Mr. Uribe opposed.
horowitzza

Nicaragua's president makes a farce of democracy - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...6-9767-f6c947fd0cb8_story.html

president democracy dictatorship foreign policy latin america Nicaragua diplomacy

shared by horowitzza on 25 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • where President Daniel Ortega, seeking a third consecutive five-year term in November, has just announced that his wife, Rosario Murillo, is his vice-presidential running mate.
  • Mr. Ortega first ruled Nicaragua for 11 years after the 1979 revolution, until his ouster in the country’s first genuinely democratic election
  • Having regained the presidency in 2006 through a series of corrupt political maneuvers, Mr. Ortega promptly engaged in more chicanery to ensure he would never have to leave office again
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In June, the pro-Ortega Supreme Court ousted the opposition’s likely presidential candidate, Eduardo Montealegre, from his own party in favor of a pro-Ortega opponent who had sued for control
  • Mr. Ortega’s allies in the National Assembly expelled 16 lawmakers (and 12 alternates) from Mr. Montealegre’s party who refused to accept the court-imposed new party leader.
  • Nicaragua’s backsliding, after a brief period of relatively transparent politics in the 1990s, has proceeded with nothing but mild verbal opposition from Washington
  • the State Department has also pronounced itself “gravely concerned” by the crushing of the political opposition.
  • horowitzza on 25 Oct 16
     
    President Daniel Ortega is threatening the democracy that has been reasonably sustained over the past couple decades in Nicaragua.
jblackwell2

Colombia leader Juan Manuel Santos: From hawk to dove - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-latin-america-37445224

politics colombia war peace

shared by jblackwell2 on 03 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • "I will keep seeking peace until the last minute of my term," said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, after voters rejected his peace deal with the left-wing Farc rebels.
  • The deal aimed to put an end to more than five decades of conflict, which left an estimated 260,000 people dead and millions internally displaced.
  • Less than a decade ago, while serving as defence minister, he authorised the controversial bombing of a Farc camp in Ecuador without informing the neighbouring country.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Mr Santos had supported Mr Uribe early on, founding a party to back Mr Uribe's campaign for president when the latter was still a relatively unknown candidate.
  • However, Mr Santos' approval ratings remained high and he resigned as defence minister in 2009 to be able to run for president in 2010.
  • jblackwell2 on 03 Nov 16
     
    This article talks about Juan Manuel Santos.
1 - 8 of 8
Showing 20▼ items per page