Americas-MOAS

Courts are prone to corruption and manipulation by organised crime groups, drug cartels and a democratic socialist political party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which allegedly accepts bribes from drug traffickers for campaign financing in return for judicial favours (InSightCrime, July 2014).

Rampant corruption within Nicaragua's political circles impairs the functioning of state institutions and limits foreign investment. International companies report widespread favouritism and impunity among public officials.

Courts are prone to corruption and manipulation by organised crime groups, drug cartels and a democratic socialist political party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which allegedly accepts bribes from drug traffickers for campaign financing in return for judicial favours (InSightCrime, July 2014).

Thirty years later, even after the native communities were granted autonomy over the lands and given preferential treatment under the law, critics say a new land grab is underway as the Sandinista government looks the other way.

The Sandinistas are poised to assume another four years in office after elections on Nov. 6, and the Miskitos worry that old grudges still loom large. And that more settlers will come.

But the farmers and the Miskitos say the government has not done enough to settle the issue.

President Daniel Ortega can expect the country's presidential and legislative election to give him a third consecutive 5-year term as he enjoys broad support and appears to have secured the other avenues to victory.

First Lady Rosario Murillo already has a prominent role in the government. The BBC reports that she is widely seen as sharing power with her husband, and critics accuse the first couple of running Nicaragua like a personal fiefdom.

August showed that 65 per cent of those surveyed planned to vote for Ortega's FSLN, compared with just 13 per cent for the opposition.

A new bill in the United States’ Congress aims to to sanction Daniel Ortega for his many crimes and recent dictatorial behavior.

She referred to the refusal of the Nicaraguan government to accept oversight by international and national observers.

The Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act she presented reportedly aims to adopt sanctions against the Nicaraguan government for its most recent behavior.

The latest result was released by the pollster M&R Consultores, which also said that 64.8 percent of respondents approve of the Sandinista government, highlighting the social programs, infrastructure, free health care and education, stability and economic growth, among other achievements.

Earlier this year, a coalition of farmers turned in 28,000 signatures opposing the law that grants concession for the project.

The report argues that the delayed $50 billion canal deal breaches Nicaragua’s own constitution and denies its people’s rights to property, adequate housing, water and food. The report also expressed concerns over Cocibolca Lake, which it said is the “main fresh water reserve for all of Central America.” The construction of a massive waterway “will surely affect the 80,000 people who use the lake’s water,” the report stated, “and the 40 different varieties of fish living in it.”

The canal would also uproot some 120,000 farmers, according to the report, who have no means of relocating and have received insufficient compensation from the government.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with Marxist guerrillas, a surprise choice and a show of support days after voters rejected a peace deal he signed with the rebels.

Santos has promised to revive the plan even though Colombians narrowly rejected it in a referendum on Sunday.

The fact that a majority of the voters said ‘No’ to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead.”

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.

Keeping the status quo on campaign financing is “the death of democracy.”

He is calling for a ban on private funding for political campaigns.

Samuel said there should be stringent laws that severely punish politicians through penalties and fines for using private funding for political campaign.

“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.

“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 …

Antiguan ex-president of UN general assembly faces $1m corruption charges

A former president of the United Nations general assembly turned the world body into a “platform for profit” by accepting over $1m in bribes and a trip to New Orleans from a billionaire Chinese real estate mogul and other businesspeople to pave the way for lucrative investments, a prosecutor charged on Tuesday

John Ashe, a former UN ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda who served in the largely ceremonial post from September 2013 to September 2014, faces conspiracy- and bribery-related charges along with five others, including Francis Lorenzo, a deputy UN ambassador from the Dominican Republic who lives in the Bronx.

PM recommits to ending corruption in Antigua-Barbuda

he was president of the UN General Assembly, have “cast a pall of gloom over all of us and neighbouring Caribbean countries”, in a national broadcast on Sunday Prime Minister Gaston Browne promised to strengthen the structures and machinery of good governance in his country and put an end to all corrupt practices.

The implication of members of the former United Progressive Party (UPP) government, including the former prime minister, Baldwin Spencer, in bribery, money laundering and other corruption charges, has also caused us great alarm,” Browne said.

The aim of this international peacekeeping mission is to support Colombia’s justice and peace process. Its mandate was extended in 2010 to include support for the land restitution process and implementation of the Victims and Land Restitution Law.

The Mission also helps to identify new armed parties and advises Colombia on alternative methods of resolving conflicts and strengthening democracy.

The international community pays into a fund to facilitate the work of MAPP/OEA. In 2015 funds were received from the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, the USA, the EU and Turkey as well as from Germany. This money is used to support MAPP/OEA’s general mandate and all the associated activities. BMZ has a financing agreement in place with MAPP/OEA.

NECOCLI, Colombia — As the Colombian government nears a deal to end its 50-year conflict with FARC guerrillas, it is intensifying another war in the jungles here along the Caribbean coast, the stronghold of a shadowy drug organization known as Clan Úsuga.

Both the government and the traffickers know that a big share of Colombia’s billion-dollar cocaine trade will be up for grabs if FARC — whose rebellion runs on drug profits — goes out of business. Some of its 7,000 battle-hardened fighters may be looking for new jobs. Clan Úsuga will be hiring.

That $10 billion program, funded by Congress, is considered by many Republicans and Democrats to be one of the most successful U.S. foreign policy achievements of the past generation, forcing FARC to the negotiating table after a half-century of violence that has left more than 220,000 dead.

"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.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc, after the initials in Spanish) are Colombia's largest rebel group.

They were founded in 1964 as the armed wing of the Communist Party and follow a Marxist-Leninist ideology.

They are controlled by the Secretariat, a group of less than a dozen top commanders who devise the overarching strategy of the Farc.

In a world dominated by horrific forever wars, Colombia's agreement with the Farc guerrilla movement stands out as an extraordinary moment for this country, and a rare affirmation of the power of peace talks.

"What we have seen in Colombia is an example that if you work hard at it, with a lot of international support, you can get something worthwhile," he said, while a Colombian choir rehearsed Beethoven's Ode to Joy on the edge of the picturesque harbour.

Every conflict is different, but every peace process throws up similar challenges and controversies.

President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, days after Colombia rejected a peace deal he pursued.

Then on Friday, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia won the peace prize for his efforts to bring the country’s “civil war to an end” — only days after his country rejected the peace deal in a referendum.