Una de las preguntas más frecuentes que se hacen en Venezuela es “¿y tú qué crees que va a pasar?”
La tensión política de la última década ha hecho que los venezolanos se conviertan en adictos a las predicciones.
Y el año 2016 será un año más en el que vivirán entre la incertidumbre y la especulación.
La victoria de la oposición en las parlamentarias del 6 de diciembre dejó un escenario político incluso más complejo del que había antes.
Lo que algunos han llamado una “batalla” en este inédito tablero de juego no será solamente una noticia de orden político, sino económica, judicial y, probablemente, social.
Porque la crisis que vive Venezuela se puede profundizar o resolver dependiendo de lo que pase en el ámbito político: ¿continuarán las filas para comprar productos? ¿Seguirá la inflación disparada? ¿Hasta cuando habrá escasez?
Esas son las interrogantes que se plantean los venezolanos de cara al 2016.
Y para resolverlas, al menos en términos generales, BBC Mundo les preguntó a 5 expertos.
(La famosa tuitera y analista política de línea chavista Larissa Costas se abstuvo de participar porque, dijo, “tengo una diferencia ética y política con la visión que BBC ofrece de mi país”.)
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Con el precio del petróleo tan bajo, el 2016 será difícil para Venezuela.
1. @luisvicenteleon “Económicamente hablando, el año 2016 vamos a extrañar este 2015”.
El economista y presidente de la influyente encuestadora Datanalisis, Luis Vicente León, dice que “el deterioro de la economía ha sido muy importante en los últimos dos años, pero no ha llegado a su clímax”.
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Luis Vicente León es presidente de Datanálisis, profesor y articulista. Foto: Archivo personal
Las razones de la crisis, según este consultor especializado en prever escenarios, se encuentran en el modelo de control e intervencionismo y la caída del precio del petróleo, que “le ha impedido al gobierno seguir maquillando sus errores”.
El analista, que cuenta con una influyente cuenta de Twitter seguida por más de 700.000 usuarios, dice que “ninguna de las dos causas de la crisis se han atendido y, lejos de eso, se agudizan, por lo que nada hace prever mejoras en el 2016”.
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Con la victoria de la oposición en las parlamentarias, la historia de Venezuela en 2016 será de corte legal.
2. @ignandez “2016 será un choque institucional entre un Gobierno resistente a la soberanía popular expresada el 6D y una Asamblea representante de esa soberanía”.
José Ignacio Hernández es abogado, constitucionalista y profesor de la Universidad Central de Venezuela. Pero también un asiduo tuitero que usa la red social para explicar los entramados legales de este complejo país.
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Jose Ignacio Hernandez es profesor de derecho administrativo, constitucionalista y escritor en el portal Prodavinci. Foto: Archivo personal
Dos condiciones afectarán el 2016 en Venezuela, dice: “La crisis económica y social y la crisis institucional, derivada de los resultados del 6 de diciembre”.
Para él, ambas condiciones interactuarán entre sí: “Crisis institucional afectará negativamente la gobernabilidad y, por ello, impactará negativamente en la toma de decisiones para afrontar la crisis económica y social”.
Que la oposición tenga el control de uno de los órganos del poder nacional, dice, “originará un conflicto de poderes entre la Asamblea, por un lado, y, por el otro, el Poder Ejecutivo y el Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, lo que llevará a exigir, desde la ciudadanía, la defensa de la Constitución”.
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Muchos vaticinan un divorcio entre Maduro y Cabello de cara al futuro.
3. @LuisCarlos “En 2016 los venezolanos contarán sus monedas mientras Maduro y la revolución contarán por separado las municiones de su capital político”.
El analista político Luis Carlos Díaz, uno de los tuiteros más influyentes del país, dice que el cierre del 2015 para Venezuela “fue de película”, porque la gente votó “de forma espectacular contra el gobierno de Maduro y años de crisis”.
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Luis Carlos Díaz es analista político, activista de derechos humanos e integrante de la mesa del programa de radio de José Miguel Rondón. Fotos: Archivo Personal
Muchos venezolanos, asegura, “escogieron el voto en lugar de echarse a la calle, pero Maduro ha decidido hacerse el sordo y no termina de encajar el golpe”.
Y la oposición, dice Díaz, “no le ha hecho el favor de la estridencia ni el desespero”.
Así que las preguntas, estima, son: “¿La revolución sacrificará a Maduro para preservar algo del legado de Chávez? ¿Cómo se sostiene un modelo populista sin petrodólares ni carisma?”
Los chavistas en el poder “tendrán que contar sus municiones y sus capitales congelados en el extranjero y sobre eso decidirán qué hacer”, dice.
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Muchos venezolanos celebraron la victoria de la oposición, pero al día siguiente se volvieron a enfrentar a la crisis.
4. @mlopezmaya “Los venezolanos en 2016 buscarán enderezar su gran entuerto desde un camino muy pedregoso, pero divisando un horizonte de ligero optimismo”.
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Margarita López Maya es historiadora y profesora de la Universidad Central de Venezuela. Foto: Contrapunto.
La historiadora Margarita López Maya, que es reconocida por haber apoyado al gobierno en su primera etapa y desde hace unos años criticarlo, explica que el proyecto chavista “ofreció sacar a Venezuela de la profunda y global crisis que padecía a fines del siglo XX”, pero “desvió su camino con la radicalización que se produjo hacia 2005”.
Según la analista, el chavismo “nunca produjo en lo económico una alternativa al rentismo petrolero, y más bien en lo político y social empeoró el autoritarismo y el clientelismo”, produciendo lo que ella llama “un entuerto”.
Los resultados de las parlamentarias para la historiadora “abrieron la posibilidad de transitar un camino muy pedregoso, pero no imposible, hacia una transición democrática”.
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El Chiguire Bipolar es una parodia de noticiero.
—”2016 será un año de conflictivi…
—No.
—Que sí.
—¡Que no!
—¡¡¡Que sí te dije ya!!!”.
No hay analista en Venezuela que no siga –y cite– al Chigüire Bipolar, una parodia de noticiero, no sólo porque es chistoso, sino porque el fondo de sus noticias resulta tener un inteligente análisis del país.
Y la “conflictivi… ¡Que te calles!”, será, para el Chigüire, el 2016 en Venezuela.
President Donald Trump is denying an accusation of improper contact with a foreign leader. USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – A whistleblower complaint and concerns over President Donald Trump’s discussions with the Ukrainian president have sparked yet another inquiry into Trump’s interactions with foreign leaders and has spilled over into the 2020 presidential campaign.
The story, which has been reported in bits and pieces from a number of news outlets, folds together diplomatic efforts from both the Obama and Trump administrations. Here we’ve attempted to breakdown what everyone is talking about.
First, it’s important to know the players, who include familiar and some not-so-familiar names. They are: Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, former Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin and current Ukrainian secretary general Yuriy Lutsenko.
At the heart of the matter is an August whistleblower complaint by a U.S. intelligence community official and ongoing efforts by Democrats to learn more about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine. Democrats have demanded access to the whistleblower complaint.
Democrats separately have been investigating whether Trump sought to put pressure on Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, the Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of Burisma Group, an energy company in Ukraine. They contend that using official diplomatic contacts to try to undermine a political rival would amount to an abuse of power.
On Friday, Trump said it “doesn’t matter” if he asked Ukraine to investigate Biden and that the matter warrants scrutiny. The president also said his conversations with world leaders are “always appropriate, at the highest level always appropriate.” On the same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump asked Zelensky eight times to investigate Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden in Ukraine
The New York Times reported in May that Biden, while in office in 2016, threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees unless Ukraine reduced its corruption. Part of that demand called for removing the country’s top prosecutor, Shokin, who was investigating the oligarch behind an energy company where Hunter Biden served on the board.
Shokin was accused by U.S. officials of ignoring corruption in his own office. The Ukrainian Parliament eventually voted him out.
But Lutsenko, Ukraine’s current prosecutor, told Bloomberg News Service in May that he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.
“Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws — at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing,” Lutsenko told Bloomberg. “A company can pay however much it wants to its board.”
Hunter Biden told the Times in May that he had “no role whatsoever” in the Ukrainian investigation of the company or any of its officers. The Post has reported there is “no evidence” Biden was trying to help his son.
On July 25, Trump called Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. Trump allegedly told Zelensky he could improve that country’s image by pursuing corruption cases, according to a letter from House Democrats investigating the call.
Trump also withheld more than $250 million in security assistance that Congress had appropriated and that Ukraine desperately needed. But the Trump administration made the funding available earlier this month.
The day after Trump’s call, Ambassador Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative for Ukraine, was dispatched to meet with Zelensky. And days later, Giuliani met in Spain with Andriy Yermak, a Zelensky aide, to discuss a possible meeting between Trump and Zelensky.
Giuliani has tweeted allegations of Biden corruption repeatedly, at one point alleging “bribery, extortion, money laundering and fraud” by the Biden family in China and Ukraine.
Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told The New York Times in May that Biden acted “without any regard for how it would or would not impact any business interests of his son, a private citizen.”
The whistleblower complaint
Democrats are in a standoff with the Trump administration, which is refusing to turn over to Congress an Aug. 12 complaint from a whistleblower within the intelligence community. The conflict intensified after The Washington Post reported that the whistleblower had raised concerns over Trump’s contact with the foreign leader, including a “promise” he made to the leader.
The inspector general for the director of national intelligence (DNI), Michael Atkinson, said in a Sept. 9 letter that the matter involves an “urgent concern,” which is defined as “a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of the law,” but “does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters.” Atkinson said a preliminary review found the complaint credible.
Such complaints are typically reported to Congress within seven days. But Atkinson said he hit an impasse with Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, over sharing the complaint with Congress. Atkinson said he was told by the legal counsel for the intelligence director that the complaint did not meet the definition of an “urgent concern.” And he said the Justice Department said it did not fall under the director’s jurisdiction because it didn’t involve allegations concerning a member of the intelligence community or intelligence activity.
Atkinson said in a letter to Maguire he disagreed with that Justice Department view.
“I set forth my reasons for concluding that the subject matter involved in the complainant’s disclosure not only falls within the DNI’s jurisdiction, but relates to one of the most significant and important of the DNI’s responsibilities to the American people,” Atkinson wrote.
The inspector general said he requested authorization to at the very least disclose the “general subject matter” to Congress but had not been allowed to do so. He said the information was “being kept” from Congress.
Democrats say they have “grave” concerns about the Trump administration’s refusal to allow the complaint to be disclosed to members of Congress.
“Reports of a reliable whistle-blower complaint regarding the President’s communications with a foreign leader raise grave, urgent concerns for our national security,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. “The president and acting DNI’s stonewalling must end immediately, and the whistle-blower must be provided with every protection guaranteed by the law to defend the integrity of our government and ensure accountability and trust.”
Giuliani admits he talked to Ukraine about Biden
Congressional Democrats were troubled by the appearance of Trump urging a foreign government to investigate a political rival.
“If the President, in his official capacity, asked a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political opponent,” Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a tweet. “Congress cannot let that stand. Our silence could doom the republic.”
The dispute had been simmering as Congress investigated what was said during the call. But it boiled over Thursday, when Giuliani first denied that he urged Ukraine to investigate and then acknowledged it.
“Of course I did,” Giuliani said during a rambling interview on CNN.
Giuliani said he visited Ukraine on his own and then told Trump.
“I did what I did on my own,” Giuliani said. “I told him about it afterward.”
Three congressional chairmen – Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md. – had announced Sept. 9 that they were demanding records from the White House and State Department about alleged attempts to manipulate Ukraine’s judicial system.
“As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme,” said the letter from the Democratic chairmen.
The State Department has insisted that President Trump’s attorney is “a private citizen” who “does not speak on behalf of the U.S. Government.” Yermak publicly stated that “it was not clear to him whether Mr. Giuliani was representing Mr. Trump in their talks.”
The IG meets with the House Intelligence Committee
The inspector general met privately Thursday with members of the House Intelligence Committee. But Schiff, the committee chairman, said the official refused to describe the complaint, but called it “both credible and urgent.”
The committee plans to hold a public hearing with Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, on Sept. 26. Maguire and Atkinson also are expected next week at the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Schiff said the prospect of misconduct at the highest levels of government “raises grave concerns that your office, together with the Department of Justice and possibly the White House, are engaged in an unlawful effort to protect the President and conceal from the Committee information related to his possible ‘serious or flagrant’ misconduct, abuse of power, or violation of law.”
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., tweeted that withholding the complaint could become another part of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment investigation.
“This is deadly serious,” Cicilline said. “If the President does not allow the whistleblower complaint against him to be turned over to Congress, we will add it to the Articles of Impeachment.”
Trump said the complaint was partisan, although he later said he didn’t know who made it.
“It’s a partisan whistleblower,” Trump said.
Trump’s response
Trump has said Biden should be investigated, but when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump refused to describe his July call with the Ukrainian president and he dismissed the whistleblower complaint as a partisan attack.
“Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden’s statement, because it was disgraceful, where he talked about billions of dollars that he’s not giving to a certain country unless a certain prosecutor is taken off the case,” Trump said. “It’s a disgrace.”
Trump denied any impropriety in the call.
“I’ve had conversations with many leaders. They’re always appropriate,” Trump said. “It’s just another political hack job.”
Biden’s response
Biden lashed out Friday at Trump’s effort to push Ukraine to investigate him.
“Not one single credible outlet has given credibility to these assertions. Not one single one,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.. “So I have no comment other than the president should start to be president.”
Biden then put out a statement Friday evening.
“If these reports are true, then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country,” the statement said. “This behavior is particularly abhorrent because it exploits the foreign policy of our country and undermines our national security for political purposes. It means that he used the power and resources of the United States to pressure a sovereign nation — a partner that is still under direct assault from Russia — pushing Ukraine to subvert the rule of law in the express hope of extracting a political favor.”
Daniel Ortega, presidente inconstitucional de Nicaragua, decretó concederle la Orden Augusto C. Sandino, máxima condecoración otorgada por el país, al presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.
La vocera del Gobierno de Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, leyó el decreto presidencial e indicó que Nicaragua reconoce en Maduro “un héroe de nuestros tiempos, un soldado de la paz”.
Nicolás Maduro, presidente de Venezuela, llegó a Nicaragua “en una visita relámpago”, como anunció Rosario Murillo, la noche de este viernes 13 de marzo a participar de un acto convocado por el Gobierno de Nicaragua en solidaridad con Venezuela.
Maduro fue recibido en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Managua por el presidente inconstitucional de Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, y la primera dama, Rosario Murillo.
“Es momento de unidad”, dijo Maduro a su llegada a Managua.
El mandatario venezolano llegó a la Rotonda Hugo Chávez, saludó a quienes se estaban concentrados desde las 4 de la tarde, sin embargo su estadía ahí duró pocos minutos, luego se trasladó junto a Ortega a la Plaza de la Revolución, donde se hará el acto principal.
Marcha en la Avenida Bolívar
Desde las 4 p.m. del viernes 13 de marzo se comenzaron a concentrar en la Avenida Bolívar trabajadores públicos convocados por el Gobierno de Nicaraguapara la marcha en solidaridad con Venezuela.
La marcha en la Avenida Bolívar, sumado al Teletón 2015 están causando embotellamiento en las vías de tránsito en los alrededores del noroeste de la capital. Además, desde el mediodía de este viernes buses que conforman el Transporte Urbano Colectivo (TUC) de Managua han abandonado las rutas debido a la orden de dirigentes en trasladar a quienes van a participar en la marcha de la Avenida Bolívar.
Según anuncian a través de megáfonos en la concentración que se está formando en la Rotonda Hugo Chávez, se esperan delegaciones de todos los departamentos del país.
Al lugar se ven llegar buses de diferentes departamentos con personas ondeando banderas rojinegro, azul y blanco, y banderas tricolor de Venezuela.
También hay personas que cargan megafotografías de Hugo Chávez.
Se espera que la primera dama y vocera del Gobierno lea nuevamente la declaratoria de solidaridad con Venezuela debido a las sanciones impuestas por el Gobierno de Estados Unidos que implica negarle la entrada al país de 7 funcionario venezolanos.
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Analistas y especialistas debaten si el nombramiento de Lula fue o no el peor error político de Rousseff.
La presidenta brasileña, Dilma Rousseff, apenas dijo “buen día” este jueves en el acto para investir a su antecesor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva como ministro de la Casa Civil, cuando estalló la confusión en el mismo salón donde transcurría la ceremonia oficial.
Un diputado federal crítico de la designación de Lula gritó “vergüenza” y fue expulsado del palacio presidencial de Planalto, mientras partidarios del gobierno coreaban: “¡No va a haber golpe!”.
La escena fue un reflejo de la crispación que el nombramiento de Lula genera en Brasil, donde este jueves hubo manifestaciones a favor y en contra suya en varias ciudades, con algunos incidentes violentos en la capital.
En paralelo, un juez federal suspendió la nominación del expresidente como jefe de gabinete, argumentando que hay indicios de crimen de responsabilidad en la misma, ya que Lula es investigado por corrupción.
El gobierno anunció que recurrirá la medida del juez Itagiba Catta Preta Neto, quien ha sido visto participando en protestas contra el gobierno del izquierdista Partido de los Trabajadores (PT).
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“Fuera Dilma”, dice la camiseta de este manifestante que protestó frente a la puerta del palacio presidencial de Planalto este jueves.
Rousseff presentó la investidura de Lula como un refuerzo clave para su administración, en medio de la grave crisis político-económica brasileña que amenaza su propio mandato.
“Cuento con la experiencia del expresidente Lula, cuento con la identidad que tiene con el pueblo”, sostuvo la mandataria durante la ceremonia. “Su presencia aquí prueba que tiene la grandeza del estadista”.
Pero otros creen que Rousseff tan solo intenta evitar el arresto de Lula, que como ministro tendría un fuero judicial especial, y las sospechas crecieron al conocerse un diálogo grabado entre ambos donde la presidenta le anuncia que le enviaría el acta de su designación para usar “en caso de necesidad”.
Esto intensificó las críticas contra Rousseff, así como las advertencias de que tener a su antecesor en el gabinete podría resultar demasiado costoso para ella misma.
El día en que la Cámara de Diputados de Brasil inició el trámite para un eventual juicio con miras a la destitución de Rousseff, en el aire flota una pregunta: ¿es la nominación ministerial de Lula el peor error político de la mandataria?
“El fin”
Algunos analistas sostienen que la presidenta sí cometió una equivocación mayúscula al incorporar a su gobierno a su “amigo y compañero de luchas“, como ella misma llamó a Lula este jueves.
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Un hombre que apoya a Lula llora durante el nombramiento del expresidente como ministro de la Casa Civil.
“Todo muestra que fue un error político”, dijo David Fleischer, profesor emérito de ciencia política en la Universidad de Brasilia, en diálogo con BBC Mundo.
Y agregó que, además de las dudas sobre el fuero judicial privilegiado de Lula, han surgido acusaciones de que Rousseff cometió “obstrucción de la justicia” al designar al expresidente cuando era investigado.
Algunos de los principales periódicos brasileños también publicaron editoriales este jueves criticando a la mandataria.
“Ya se decía que, con la nominación de Lula, el gobierno (de) Dilma Rousseff llegaba al fin. Tal vez la frase deba ser encarada, a partir de los próximos días, de una forma más literal de lo que se pensaba”, indicó un editorial del diario Folha de Sao Paulo.
“Al nombrar al expresidente una especie de primer ministro con amplios poderes, la presidente colocó (la causa judicial por sobornos denominada) Lava-Jato dentro del Palacio, a su lado”, sostuvo un texto de opinión del diario O Globo.
Los críticos recuerdan, además, que la designación de Lula fue anunciada apenas horas después de las manifestaciones antigubernamentales del domingo, que batieron récords de asistencia en la historia del país.
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El expresidente mantiene una amplia popularidad luego de sus ocho años de gobierno.
Y señalan que en los próximos días pueden surgir más datos comprometedores para Lula y Rousseff, como la delación que hizo ante la justicia el exlíder del gobierno en el Senado, Delcídio Amaral, acusando a ambos de obstruir investigaciones de corrupción.
Lula y Rousseff niegan esto, pero muchos creen ahora que el expresidente podría hundir por inercia a su sucesora en caso de caer en un proceso judicial.
Con amplia popularidad
En cambio, otros analistas dudan de que haber acudido a Lula pueda considerarse un error estratégico de Rousseff, cuyos índices de aprobación se desplomaron con los escándalos y la fuerte recesión económica.
El expresidente mantiene una parte de la amplia popularidad con que dejó el cargo a fin de 2010, tras un mandato de ocho años durante el cual la economía de Brasil creció y decenas de millones salieron de la pobreza.
Además, Lula tiene influencia en partidarios y aliados.
Algunos observadores creen que Rousseff apostó a él para reconstruir su deteriorada base de apoyo en el Congreso y parar el proceso de juicio político que puede acabar con su mandato.
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En la noche del miércoles hubo incidentes violentos frente al edificio del Congreso en Brasilia.
“El expresidente tiene un tránsito muy grande en el Congreso, en relación a los liderazgos y los movimientos sociales”, dijo Vera Chaia, profesora de ciencia política en la Universidad Católica de São Paulo.
Aunque agregó que la designación también ofrece a Lula un foro privilegiado para ser juzgado sólo por la máxima corte de justicia de Brasil, Chaia criticó como “muy oportunista” la divulgación de grabaciones telefónicas al expresidente.
Los registros fueron realizados por la policía y liberados el miércoles para su publicación por el juez federal Sérgio Moro, que conduce la causa de sobornos en la petrolera estatal Petrobras y está a cargo de las investigaciones de Lula.
Moro, convertido en ídolo de los manifestantes antigubernamentales, sostuvo que el levantamiento del secreto de las grabaciones propiciaría “el saludable escrutinio público” sobre la actuación de los políticos.
Pero Rousseff criticó duramente las escuchas telefónicas durante el acto de investidura de Lula este jueves, afirmando que violaron la Constitución y pueden propiciar un quiebre del Estado de derecho.
“Convulsionar a la sociedad brasileña con base en falsedades, métodos oscuros y prácticas criticables viola principios y garantías constitucionales y los derechos de los ciudadanos, y abre precedentes gravísimos”, sostuvo.
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Algunos analistas piensan que Lula podría hundir a Dilma, mientras que para otros es una forma de reconstruir apoyos.
“Los golpes comienzan así”, continuó.
Cristiano Noronha, vicepresidente y analista político de la consultora Arko Advice en Brasilia, descartó que la designación de Lula sea el mayor error de Rousseff, aunque hoy tampoco luzca como un acierto.
“Inicialmente la ida del ex presidente (al ministerio de) Casa Civil tenía potencial de conseguir revertir algunos votos contrarios a la presidenta y a favor del impeachment“, dijo Noronha a BBC Mundo.
“El problema”, añadió, “es que toda esta confusión puede anular ese beneficio”.
Police investigate the scene of the car crash on El Camino Real and Sunnyvale Saratoga Roads in Sunnyvale, on April 23, 2019.
Police investigate the scene of the car crash on El Camino Real and Sunnyvale Saratoga Roads in Sunnyvale, on April 23, 2019.
Photo: Cody Glenn
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Police investigate the scene of the car crash on El Camino Real and Sunnyvale Saratoga Roads in Sunnyvale, on April 23, 2019.
Police investigate the scene of the car crash on El Camino Real and Sunnyvale Saratoga Roads in Sunnyvale, on April 23, 2019.
Photo: Cody Glenn
An Army veteran who faces eight counts of attempted murder after plowing his car into a crowd of people in Sunnyvale, critically injuring a 13-year-old girl, targeted the victims because he thought some of them were Muslim, police officials said Friday.
Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, was ordered held without bail Friday at his first appearance in court since being arrested and charged with steering his black 2010 Toyota Corolla into eight pedestrians Tuesday evening. The defendant said nothing during the brief appearance in Judge Richard Loftus’ courtroom at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose.
“Based on our investigation, new evidence shows that the defendant intentionally targeted the victims based on their race and his belief that they were of the Muslim faith,” Sunnyvale Police Chief Phan Ngo said outside court. The chief didn’t explain what evidence led police to believe this and did not say whether any of the victims are Muslim.
The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office charged Peoples with eight counts of attempted murder, four of which have enhancement for causing great bodily injury. Prosecutors have not filed hate crime enhancements in the case, but are prepared to do so “if the investigation yields enough evidence,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Jay Borarsky said.
“There is very appalling, disturbing evidence that at least one or two of these victims were targeted based on the defendant’s view of what their race or religion may have been,” Borarsky said, adding that “we have zero tolerance for any sort of hate crime.”
Sunnyvale police Capt. Jim Choi said Peoples has made “no statements of remorse” since his arrest Tuesday evening.
Peoples’ attorney, Chuck Smith, challenged the accusations and said his client did not intentionally run down anyone and has been “praying for the victims injured from his actions.”
“This act was clearly the product of some mental disorder or mental defect,” Smith said after the hearing. “There is no explanation for this other than his service, the things he saw, and what happened to him mentally while serving our country.”
Peoples served in the U.S. Army from 2004 to 2006 and was honorably discharged before joining the Army Reserve in 2008. He was a civil affairs specialist who retained the rank of sergeant and was deployed to Iraq from June 2005 to May 2006, officials said.
His brother has told The Chronicle that Peoples was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after his return from the Middle East. He was on medication and spent nearly a year in a mental institution in 2015, his brother, Joshua Peoples, said.
Before he ran down the crowd, Peoples picked up food and was heading toward a Bible study group, police said. One witness told The Chronicle that he reached speeds up to 60 mph before striking the victims. Police later found a disassembled, inoperative shotgun in the Toyota, they said.
Peoples hit seven of the eight victims he targeted, police said. One of the victims pushed his 9-year-old son out of the car’s path. The father, however, was hit, along with his 13-year-old daughter, who authorities said is the most severely injured victim.
She remains in critical condition in a coma with swelling to her brain, police officials wrote in court papers. Doctors removed the left side of her skull to relieve pressure. She also has a broken pelvis.
“Our hearts are with her and her loved ones as we pray for her recovery,” Ngo said.
The six other victims have injuries ranging from broken bones to minor scrapes.
After crashing into the crowd at the intersection of El Camino Real and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, a witness said, Peoples got out of his car and repeatedly mumbled, “Thank you, Jesus,” before police came to the scene and arrested him.
The attack comes as many local Muslims have grown fearful and frustrated over recent anti-Muslim rhetoric and attacks around the country and world. Last month, a man suspected of having white nationalist ties gunned down 49 people at two mosques in New Zealand during Friday prayer.
In the United States, Muslims were the target of nearly 19% of religiously motivated hate crimes, according to FBI data released in 2018.
“My heart breaks for anyone who is an innocent victim of hate,” said Samina Sundas, founder of the American Muslim Voice Foundation, a Bay Area Muslim advocacy group. “People are just killing right and left. I don’t know when it will stop.”
Sundas said people shouldn’t focus on divisiveness when tragedies like the one in Sunnyvale happen.
“More of us need to dedicate ourselves to love, not hate,” she said.
You won’t see millions of people piled into Times Square tonight – thanks coronavirus – but, as they say, the show must go on.
The new year of 2021will ring in with a ball drop in New York City’s Times Square, the first since 1907 without the public in attendance. Instead of cheering crowds and confetti, the dropping of the giant sparkly orb and the big countdown will be broadcast live online and via TV.
The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment are teaming for a commercial-free webcast and TV pool feed of the ball drop. Headlining the event will be singer Andra Day who will perform her single “Rise Up.”
There will also be live performances by Gloria Gaynor, Pitbull, Anitta, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Porter, Cyndi Lauper, Jimmie Allen, Machine Gun Kelly, The Waffle Crew, and USO Show Troupe. Host is Jonathan Bennett of “Mean Girls” and Hallmark Holiday film’s “The Christmas House.”
Events will start with the Ball Raising at 6 p.m. EST (5 p.m. CST) on Dec. 30, 2020 and end at 12:15 a.m. EST (11:15 p.m. CST) on Jan. 1, 2021. The show will be streamed live on multiple websites, including TimesSquareNYC.org, NewYearsEve.nyc, Livestream.com/2021, and TimesSquareBall.net.
The ball drop will also air on CNN, Fox, NBC, TBS and many other networks. You can also watch on fubo or Hulu.
Counting down the seconds until 2020 is done? Watch live below:
Unlike the geopolitical-related oil surges during previous tense periods in the Middle East, the price now may not inflate as much as it may have because of the growth of U.S. oil output in the last decade. The U.S. is now the world’s top producer, pumping 12.9 million barrels a day.
Yergin said oil prices have been responding more to trade matters than geopolitics recently, and that could change with the approach of the signing of the phase one trade deal between the U.S. and China. Trade worries had been outweighing other factors before the U.S. and China signaled a deal was close at hand. The concern was that the trade war would hurt demand globally, and there is a better market for oil and other commodities if tensions remain at bay.
“Shale has changed the psychology of the world oil market,” he said. Growth in U.S. production has been rapid, with more than 1 million barrels added this year, but that growth could slow. The U.S. growth spurt has also helped mitigate the impact of the loss of oil output from both Iran and Venezuela, also under U.S. sanctions.
“I think we’re not going to see the kind of volumetric increases of the last few years. This year, we expect the U.S. will add about 400,000 to 450,000 barrels a day. Capital discipline is going to put a big cap on production of shale. The U.S.is still going to be a 13 million barrel a day plus producer. This production is not going away,” said Yergin.
The U.S. has changed the oil market, but it could still remain elevated because of uncertainty which may not go away for some time.
“There are times when the geopolitical risk premium is inflated and other times it’s nonexistent. It’s getting inflated again,” said Kilduff.
However, Ed Morse, Citigroup head of commodities research, says that could be temporary.
He said there could be attacks by Iran in the near-term but ultimately the situation could be bearish for the oil market if it ends in Iran and the U.S. ultimately negotiating a new deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
“Despite clear short-term oil market concerns, there could be bearish factors at work later in 2020, with the possibility that Iran and the US could find common purpose in working out a new agreement,” Morse wrote in a note. “The push and pull on politics in Iran have involved three different parties— the clerical establishment, elected officials in parliament and the administration, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their Quds forces, whose leader has now been eliminated by US attacks. Of the three, the Quds forces have been the major target of US sanctions. They and the IRGC have been the one party least interested in a bilateral accord with the US.”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – An Austin-East High School student accused of shooting a Knoxville police officer died Monday afternoon.
Officers with the Knoxville Police Department responded to a report of someone possibly armed with a gun at Austin-East Magnet High School around 3:15 p.m. Monday, according to the TBI.
Upon arrival, officers located the student inside a school restroom. TBI officials said that officers ordered the student out, but he refused to comply.
As officers entered the restroom, the student reportedly fired shots, striking an officer. Officials said one officer returned fire.
No information was released about whether the returned fire struck the student.
The officer who was shot was taken to University of Tennessee Medical Center with a leg injury where he was last listed in serious condition and in surgery.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon confirmed she met with the officer who was conscious and alert, “He’d rather he be hurt than anyone else and he’s in very good spirits.”
Knoxville Police Chief Eve Thomas said it was chilling to learn an officer had been hit and that it had happened at a school. She said the school was initially placed on lockdown while officers ascertained who was involved. She said officers then worked to reunite students with their loved ones.
Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the incident including Knoxville Fire Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in Nashville (ATF Nashville) and TBI. The Knoxville Fire Department said its crews were some of the first on the scene. Fire officials said officers worked as shields for paramedics who worked to find injured individuals.
“ATF will be working with the Knoxville PD as well as focusing on the tracing of firearms and the recovery of shell cases which will be entered into NIBIN to see if there are any connections to previous shootings,” said ATF in a statement.
KPD said a reunification site had been established at the baseball field behind Austin-East High School near Wilson and South Hembree.
Following the shooting, Knox Co. Schools Superintendent Bob Thomas notified the public regarding the school building being secured. “The school building has been secured and students who were not involved in the incident have been released to their families,” said KCS Superintendent Bob Thomas.
Mayor Kincannon commended Austin-East School staff for their work to protect students. She also praised the officer who was shot on the scene for risking his life for the safety of the students.
“We all need to work together to stop the violence,” Kincannon said. “It’s a big challenge and we’re going to need the whole city to work together.”
Austin-East Behavior Interventionist, Quana Fields, told WVLT’s Ashley Bohle she and other staff members were inside the school building around 4:00 p.m. while police continued their investigation.
Knox Co. Mayor Kincannon and KCS Superintendent Bob Thomas released a statement in a media briefing Monday night following the fatal shooting at Austin-East High School.
“Let’s work together to stop the violence in Knoxville,” said Mayor Kincannon. “We lost someone particularly close to the community,” says Mayor Kincannon KCS Bob Thomas says Austin-East will have counselors available at the school on Tuesday, April 13.
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs released a statement expressing his condolences:
I am as troubled and frustrated about this as everyone else. I want to thank the officer for risking his life to protect everyone in the school and encourage everyone to remember how hard these last few months have been on our Austin-East families. I also want to reiterate that my office is committed to working with the city, KPD, KCSO and KCS to find solutions to these tragic situations.
Mayor Kincannon commended Austin-East School staff for their work to protect students: She also praised the officer who was shot on the scene for risking his life for the safety of the students.
“We all need to work together to stop the violence,” Kincannon said. “It’s a big challenge and we’re going to need the whole city to work together.”
Four teenage Austin-East High School students have been killed as the result of multiple shootings in Knoxville since the beginning of 2021. Here is a timeline of events:
A suspect was arrested and charged in the January shooting, but no other suspects have been identified and no charges have been filed in relation to the other shootings.
On March 8, Austin-East High School released a new bag policy to deter students from bringing unwanted items onto campus. The approved bags for students include clear backpacks, mesh backpacks and small clutch purses no larger than 4.5″x6.5″. School officials say prohibited bags include solid backpacks, fanny packs, purses, reusable grocery totes, duffle/gym bags and large solid bags.
New bag policy at Austin-East High School(Captured from Austin-East Safety Update Manual)
The City of Knoxville announced a city-wide prayer meeting, starting at 6 p.m., Tuesday April 13 at the Overcoming Believers Church located on 211 Harriet Tubman St, Knoxville, TN 37915.
A prayer circle is scheduled for Tuesday, April 13 at 12:00 p.m. across from Austin-East High School.
The TBI will lead the investigation. WVLT is continuing to update with the latest information.
São Paulo – The government of the state of São Paulo has devised a strategy for offering leisure options other than football games to foreign and domestic visitors expected in the namesake capital São Paulo during the FIFA World Cup. This Wednesday (9th) saw the launch of a travel guide listing attractions available in the capital and the rest of the state. São Paulo is expecting 1.2 million visitors during the Cup, 300,000 of which will be foreigners.
Luis Daniel Molinari
Ilhabela: an option in-between matches
“Our job is to showcase what our state has to offer,” says Carolina Fontes, the events manager of Comitê Paulista 2014 (the 2014 São Paulo State Committee), an organization linked to the state government in charge of handling World Cup-related affairs. Past experiences have shown that World Cup tourists want to do other things as well, hence the guide, according to the events manager.
Another important piece of information on crafting the guide is the fact that World Cup tourists don’t travel farther than 300 kilometres or longer than 3 days, because they take their trips in between games. The guide has 236 pages and features 55 routes in 49 municipalities, with options lasting one, two or three days. It is divided into four sections – beach and sun, culture and leisure, food and beverage, adventure and nature – and there are versions available in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
The guide will be distributed to travel agencies and organizations, airlines, consulates, football federations in World Cup participating countries, city halls, and the press. It features information on destinations, but not complete travel packages. According to Fontes, agencies will be allowed to based their packages around it, and tourists will be able to refer to the guide with no need for a travel agency, if they choose to travel by themselves. The information is expected to reach foreigners via the press, agencies and consulates as well.
Fontes believes the most successful routes among foreigners will be beach and sun and adventure and nature. “The profile of the World Cup crowd, mostly young men, they will be seeking leisure,” says the manager. The majority of foreigners travelling to Brazil will be actual national teams’ members. There are fans who will travel alongside their national teams. Algeria is the sole Arab country playing the 2014 World Cup. The Algerian team will stay in Sorocaba, in the state of São Paulo.
The guide is fairly didactical and comprehensive. It includes information on the state and the services available, such as airports, roads, how to make telephone calls, a section with information on the World Cup in São Paulo, profiles of football players born in the state, and then the routes. One-day tour suggestions include a visit to Santos; two-day tours include gastronomical tours in Campos do Jordão and Santo Antônio do Pinhal; the three-day options include trips to the waterfalls and beaches of Ilhabela and São Sebastião.
The city of São Paulo is hosting six World Cup matches. The first one is the opening match, on June 12th, between Brazil and Croatia. The second match is due on June 19th, Uruguay vs. England, the third one is on June 23rd, Netherlands vs. Chile, and the fourth one will be played on June 26th, Belgium vs. South Korea. The last two matches will be played on July 1st and 9th, the former being a part of the round of sixteen, and the latter a part of the semi-finals. The teams playing these matches will depend on the results of prior matches.
A federal judge on Friday struck down a Kentucky law that would have effectively ended abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
U.S. District Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. ruled that the 2018 law, which required women seeking an abortion at or beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy to first undergo a “fetal demise” injection, was “unconstitutional.” He also issued a permanent injunction against the law.
“The court finds that under the Act, all women seeking a second-trimester abortion at and after 15 weeks would have to endure a medically unnecessary and invasive procedure that may increase the duration of an otherwise one-day standard D&E abortion,” McKinley wrote.
A Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) abortion is the standard second-trimester method of abortion used nationally.
Dylan Lovan/AP, FILE
Escort volunteers line up outside the EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, Ky., July 17, 2017.
The law had been signed by Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, a Republican, whose office immediately told the Associated Press it would appeal McKinley’s decision. His office did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
The injection, which would kill the fetus, would not evacuate the fetus from the woman’s body, so an abortion would still be necesary. The law was challenged by the state’s only abortion clinic and the two doctors — Ashlee Bergin and Tanya Franklin — who practice there, on the day it was signed.
Moreover, Bergin and Franklin said they would “stop performing standard D&E abortions altogether due to ethical and legal concerns regarding compliance with the law, thereby rendering abortions unavailable in the Commonwealth of Kentucky starting at 15.0 weeks from the date of a woman’s last menstrual period,” according to the ruling.
“The Commonwealth’s legitimate interests do not allow the imposition of an additional required medical procedure—an invasive and risky procedure without medical necessity or benefit to the woman—prior to the standard D&E abortion. Here, Kentucky’s legitimate interests must give way to the woman’s right,” McKinley wrote.
Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented the abortion clinic and its doctors, praised the judge’s ruling.
“It is a huge victory for women and families in Kentucky,” Kolbi-Molinas told ABC News. “Not only can women get the care they need, because it would have ended abortion at 15 weeks, but [it said] that women who wanted an abortion, starting at 15 weeks, would have had to go through unnecessary, painful, and, in some cases, experimental medical procedures just to get an abortion.”
Despite a growing number of laws limiting abortion in several U.S. states, Kolbi-Molinas said she was confident that McKinley’s ruling would not be overturned.
“The only court of appeals that has addressed one of these [fetal demise injection] cases so far has found it unconstitutional and we’re optimistic that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals would do the same,” she said.
In practical terms, the law had been blocked by a consent decree, so there has been no change for women seeking to have an abortion in Kentucky throughout the past year.
“There is no change. Abortion remains safe and legal in Kentucky,” Kolbi-Molinas said.
John Tully, commissioner of the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, said crews hope to turn their attention to the city’s side streets Tuesday evening, but added the arrival of new snow could force plows and salt spreaders to stay on arterial streets and Lake Shore Drive.
“We will be moving into all 50 wards provided there is no additional snow,” Tully said at a Tuesday news conference to update the city’s response to the snowfall and cold.
Tully also said so much snow has fallen, the city will use backhoes and semis to haul it to huge piles around the city, including the parking lots at Guaranteed Rate Field. He warned parents to keep kids away from the piles, noting it is hard for truck drivers to see children playing there — and the piles are filled with debris, including lawn chairs from displaced dibs.
“Crews are working around the clock relocating the snow to predetermined” areas around the city, he said. Moving it out of neighborhoods will help keep plows from burying parked cars when they eventually turn to side streets, he said.
Building owners and property management companies are also being asked to shovel bus stops around the city to help the CTA get back on schedule. Heavy snow on switches at the Howard Terminal, meanwhile, caused Yellow and Purple line disruptions.
As for the city’s snow-clogged alleys, don’t expect city plows to come to the rescue.
“If we start plowing in alleyways, you start collapsing garage doors ‘cuz there’s nowhere for that snow to go,” Tully said.
Instead, Streets and San will have garbage trucks “tracking” the alleys, creating paths through the alleys. They’ll also work to get back on schedule for garbage collecting, including working overtime on Saturday. Many of the garbage truck drivers are the same people driving plows, so crews have fallen behind during the storm, Tully said.
Credit: Kelly Bauer/Block Club Chicago A man blows snow in Logan Square.
Paul Manafort was placed in solitary confinement leading up to his sentencing; Doug McKelway has the details.
With the release of the “Mueller Report” reportedly just around the corner, the sentencing Thursday of one-time Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison offers a timely reminder that the whole Russia collusion narrative was never more than a fantasy of the Democrats and the mainstream media.
As numerous investigations and witness testimonies have already demonstrated, there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to elect Donald Trump as president. The entire justification for the Mueller probe was a farce, invented by former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager Robby Mook and the rest of the Clinton brain trust to justify their humiliating defeat in the 2016 presidential election.
Even U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III acknowledged that Manafort’s convictions were completely unrelated to the Russia collusion, about which the judge had previously expressed skepticism in open court.
“He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government,” Ellis said in court.
It’s near-universally assumed by now that Mueller’s final report, however much of it the public eventually sees, will fail to show any evidence of collusion. So the same talking heads who’ve spent nearly two years whipping half the country into a frenzy about Russian collusion have to cling to what they do have: Manafort.
Manafort, plain and simple, is going to prison for things completely outside the original scope of Mueller’s investigation. All of his convictions stem from the shady lobbying businesses he ran with his associate Rick Gates long before joining the Trump campaign in 2016.
The problem for them is that Manafort’s convictions illustrate just how empty Mueller’s net has come up after more than 21 months in this putrid fishing hole.
Paul Manafort was found guilty of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report a foreign bank account. In addition to the 47-month prison sentence that Ellis gave him Thursday, Manafort will serve even longer because the judge in his other criminal trial threw out his guilty plea after determining he lied to Mueller’s investigators.
This is all very serious — and all very irrelevant to Russian election interference.
Manafort, plain and simple, is going to prison for things completely outside the original scope of Mueller’s investigation. All of his convictions stem from the shady lobbying businesses he ran with his associate Rick Gates long before joining the Trump campaign in 2016.
The same could be said about any of the myriad other indictments Mueller has brought against Americans who were unfortunate enough to have ties to the Trump campaign. The only illegal conduct Mueller uncovered either predates the Trump campaign or involves “process crimes” directly linked to Mueller’s investigation, such as those of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump aide who got a whopping 14 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
The fact is that after nearly two years of work, we still have no indication that the Mueller probe found so much as a single instance of actual Trump-Russia collusion. Cases such as Manafort’s are typically relegated to no more than a moment’s mention on the nightly news, but not this time.
The fake collusion narrative is simply too important to the media. They’ve invested too much of their capital and credibility, so they have no choice but to present Manafort’s crimes as evidence not only of Donald Trump’s supposed culpability but of Mueller’s efficacy.
For their part, the president’s detractors on Capitol Hill, particularly Democratic committee chairmen Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff, need the artificial stench of the Manafort sentencing to hang in the air as long as possible so that they can prepare to launch the second wave of their vile, politically motivated attack.
With the Mueller probe’s long reign as “The Resistance’s” best hope for overturning the 2016 presidential election quickly coming to a close, the Democrats hope to simply transition to their own witch hunts.
As Manafort’s sentencing on charges unrelated to the 2016 election reminds us, the coming congressional investigations will fare no better than Mueller did in the hunt for evidence of the collusion that never was.
Already active in the local civil rights movement, he left for Mississippi after seeing scenes in the news of Black people picketing and sitting at lunch counters across the South. The images “hit me powerfully, in the soul as well as the brain,” he recalled in “Radical Equations.”
His natural confidence and calm demeanor drew people to him, and he soon became something of a civil rights celebrity. He was a hero of many books on the movement, and an inspiration for the 2000 movie “Freedom Song,” starring Danny Glover.
Eventually the fame got to be too much — not only because it added to the stress of an already overwhelming task, but also because he thought it was dangerous for the movement. He resigned from the Council of Federated Organizations in December 1964 and from S.N.C.C. two months later. He was, he said, “too strong, too central, so that people who did not need to, began to lean on me, to use me as a crutch.”
Mr. Moses grew active in the movement against the Vietnam War, and in April 1965 he spoke at his first antiwar protest, in Washington, D.C. “The prosecutors of the war,” he said, were “the same people who refused to protect civil rights in the South” — a charge that drew criticism from moderates in the civil rights movement and from white liberals, who worried about alienating President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Not long afterward, he received a notice that his draft number had been called. Because he was five years past the age limit for the draft, he suspected it was the work of government agents.
Mr. Moses and his wife, Janet, moved to Tanzania, where they lived in the 1970s and where three of their four children were born. After eight years teaching in Africa, Mr. Moses returned to Cambridge, Mass., to continue working toward a Ph.D. in the philosophy of mathematics at Harvard.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Moses is survived by another daughter, Malaika; his sons Omowale and Tabasuri; and seven grandchildren.
Este lunes en Mis Tres Marías: Leo será sentenciado a 25 años de cárcel y enloquecerá al no poder ver a sus hijas, sin embargo una inesperada noticia encederá una luz de esperanza en su trágica vida.
La esposa de Leo le enviará un misterioso video. ¿Será que regresará finalmente? ¿Dónde estuvo todo este tiempo? Muchas interrigantes y una sola verdad. ¡No te pierdas un infartante capítulo de Mis Tres Marías este lunes a las 9:30 p.m.
The university moved swiftly to recover. Mr. Nikias succeeded Steven B. Sample as president that same year and began building the school into a fund-raising powerhouse. For the last several years, it has been one of the top universities in annual fund-raising, along with Harvard and Stanford, raising $6 billion in a recent campaign.
Mr. Nikias used the N.C.A.A. sanctions as the impetus to clean house — firing the athletic director, Mike Garrett, himself a former Heisman Trophy winner. Mr. Nikias also beefed up the rules compliance office, hiring a prominent Los Angeles lawyer, and soon had a nine-person staff.
“We’re going to have a culture of compliance,” Pat Haden, the replacement U.S.C. athletic director, told The New York Times at the time. “We’re going to think about it in the morning, think about it before we go to bed. We’re going to have issues but we’ll fess up and be better than the way before.”
As part of the restructuring, one administrator was soon thrust into a more prominent role — Ms. Heinel, a former college swimmer.
Ms. Heinel now stands accused of collecting more than $1.3 million in payments directed from parents through Mr. Singer between 2014 and 2018, and drawing $20,000 per month from Mr. Singer since last July through a sham consultant agreement.
Ms. Heinel, who came to U.S.C. in 2003, was fired Tuesday along with Jovan Vavic, the hugely successful water polo coach who was charged in the current affidavit with accepting $250,000 from Mr. Singer. Two former U.S.C. soccer coaches — Ali Khosroshahin and his assistant, Laura Janke — have been charged with taking $350,000 from Mr. Singer. So, too, has Bill Ferguson, the Wake Forest women’s volleyball coach, who led the men’s team at U.S.C. for a decade before leaving in 2016. He is accused of accepting $100,000 from Mr. Singer.
The recent scandals haven’t appeared to dim the university’s powerful lure for prospective students. This year, U.S.C. received close to 66,000 applicants, its largest pool ever, with the highest collective grade point averages and SAT scores ever recorded.
Dos cuerpos, el de un hombre y una mujer, fueron encontrados ayer por habitantes del cantón Las Dispensas, en San José Villanueva, La Libertad, a orillas del río San Antonio.
Las autoridades informaron que las víctimas habrían sido privadas de libertad horas antes del hecho y sujetos las habrían llegado a asesinar a esa zona.
Aunque un agente policial no especificó las razones del crimen y tampoco brindó las identidades, dijo que los cuerpos presentaban lesiones de arma blanca.
En el lugar del crimen las autoridades encontraron un objeto cortopunzante, pero no especificaron si este fue utilizado por los asesinos para cometer el hecho.
Una persona que se acercó a la escena se presentó como hijo de María Esperanza Interiano, la mujer asesinada, y explicó que desde hace años ella mantenía una relación sentimental con Saúl Melara, la otra víctima. Ambos residían en La Dispensas.
Indicó que la última vez que vio a Interiano fue la tarde del domingo, a eso de las 3:30 p.m. Luego regresó a su casa, cercana a la de su madre y ya no supo de ella, porque desapareció al igual que Melara.
Señaló que con su familia no interpusieron denuncia a la Policía, pero se encargaron de buscarlos sin obtener resultados. Las personas aledañas a la casa de Interiano, según el familiar, no informaron si habían escuchado cuando la pareja fue raptada.
El pariente dijo desconocer si alguna vez Interiano o su pareja habían recibido amenazas de alguna persona del lugar; sin embargo, relató que la noche del domingo varios de los vecinos de Las Dispensas escucharon que un grupo personas pasaron de forma rápida por la calle principal del cantón -la que también lleva hacia el río San Antonio- y fue hasta ayer por la mañana que encontraron a su familiar en la ribera del río.
En lugar donde fueron encontradas las víctimas es la antigua carretera hacia San José Villanueva, la zona es desolada y boscosa.
De acuerdo con el hijo de Interiano, ella y Melara no se metían en problemas con la comunidad, por lo que desconocen las razones por las cuales fueron asesinados.
Las Policía tampoco dio detalle de las causas de las muertes.
Las alerta fue recibida a través de una llamada al 911 a eso de las 8:30 a.m. La escena terminó de ser procesada hasta el mediodía.
Asesinado en Guazapa
Por otra parte, la Fiscalía informó de otro crimen en el cantón San Jerónimo, en Guazapa. En el hecho fue asesinado un hombre. Las autoridades no lo identificaron.
Mientras que en un pozo del cantón Arenales, en Ciudad Delgado, las autoridades señalaron el posible hallazgo del cuerpo de joven que desapareció el miércoles, ya que cerca del lugar fue encontrada una yina de su pertenencia, según relató un familiar.
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