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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 24 May 2022

Zimbabwe opens conference to promote sales of elephant ivory

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — wildlife.
Zimbabwe has opened an Neighboring Botswana has
international conference the world’s largest elephant
to try to win international population with more than
support for its campaign to 130,000. Together Zimba-
be allowed to sell its stock- bwe and Botswana have
pile of seized ivory. nearly 50% of the world’s
If the southern African elephants. The two coun-
country is not permitted to tries say they are struggling
sell off its 130 tons of ivory, to cope with the booming
estimated to be worth $600 numbers.
million, officials warn it may Opposition is coming from
quit the Convention on In- Kenya and other members
ternational Trade in Endan- of the African Elephant Co-
gered Species, CITES. alition, whose 32 members
The three-day conference are mostly East and West
started Monday at Hwange African countries that have
National Park, the country’s fewer elephants. They ar-
largest wildlife park which gue that reopening legal
is in southwestern Zimba- international trade in ivory
bwe. Representatives from trade, even for a single
16 African countries, as well auction, would result in in-
as Japan and China, major A Zimbabwe National Parks official holds an elephant tusk during a tour of the ivory stockpiles in creased poaching.
consumers of ivory, are to Harare, Monday, May, 16, 2022. CITES banned the interna-
attend the gathering, said Associated Press tional ivory trade in 1989 to
officials. curtail poaching. In addi-
Last week envoys from derms. to sell off their ivory stocks to 8% per year, a rate it says tion to banning ivory sales,
some European Union The conference “is send- to Japan and China in 1997 is unsustainable. Zimbabwe CITES in 2019 also imposed
countries, Britain, the Unit- ing a dangerous signal to and 2008 and those limited says it desperately needs restrictions on the sales of
ed States and Canada poachers and criminal syn- sales resulted in “a sharp the funds from the sales of wild elephants caught in
were guided through heav- dicates that elephants are escalation” in poaching the ivory to manage its el- Zimbabwe and Botswa-
ily guarded vaults in Harare mere commodities, and across the continent, said ephant population, which na, a move that pleased
that are filled with piles of that ivory trade could be the letter. it says has grown to a “dan- some conservationists but
elephant tusks to win inter- resumed, heightening the “Legalizing the ivory trade, gerous” size. dismayed officials strug-
national support for legal threat to the species,” said including by authoriz- Zimbabwe’s estimated gling to manage their over-
sales of the ivory. a coalition of 50 wildlife ing another ‘one-off’ sale 100,000 elephants are dou- crowded parks.
Zimbabwe’s effort to sell and animal rights organiza- could have similarly disas- ble the carrying capacity of There is a flourishing illegal
that ivory is controversial tions from across the globe trous consequences,” the its national parks, say parks trade in ivory in which in-
with many conservation in a joint statement issued groups said. officials. The overcrowded ternational syndicates fund
groups opposing it, saying Monday. Zimbabwe argues that its el- elephants are destroying poachers to kill elephants
any sale of ivory encourag- Southern African countries ephant population is grow- the trees and shrubs that and saw off their ivory
es poaching of the pachy- have twice been permitted ing rapidly at between 5% are vital for them and other tusks.q

Migrant back home after 7 years in Mexico jail with no trial

By SONIA PÉREZ D. understand because she Mexican President Andrés because “she is a woman, on Sunday, and she col-
Associated Press couldn’t speak Spanish.. Manuel López Obrador, she is an Indigenous per- lapsed into her father’s and
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The Mayan Chuj woman and the Tamaulipas pros- son, she is a migrant, she is her uncle’s arms. Her rela-
An Indigenous migrant who left her village, San Mateo ecutor office withdrew the poor, and she didn’t speak tives helped her change
was accused of kidnap- Ixtatán, in 2014 seeking charges against her. Spanish.” from jeans into traditional
ping and jailed in a north- to migrate to the United “It is a totally aberrant An emotional Alonzo was regional clothes.
ern Mexico border city re- States, he said. She was case,” Sandoval said. All greeted by her family at “It is easy to go to prison,
turned to her homeland of detained by immigration her rights were violated the Guatemala City airport but it is difficult to get out
Guatemala on Sunday as a officials while in Reynosa, a of it,” Alonzo said in halting
free woman after spending Mexican border city across Spanish, which she learned
more than seven years in from McAllen, Texas, and while in in prison.
prison without a trial. one of the main smuggling “We are not stones, we
A Mexican court ordered points in Tamaulipas state. are not plastic things.” she
the immediate release of Police then accused her added.
Juana Alonzo Santizo, 35, of kidnapping and put her Pedro Alonzo, an uncle,
on Saturday. in jail, Sandoval said. He said she had migrated in
The court ruled there was said the charges were not hopes of helping her family.
no consistent evidence translated into her Chuj lan- “Her crime was being un-
against her, said Netzaí guage until this year. able to speaking Spanish.
Sandoval, head of Mex- She never was convicted, Who is going to pay for that
ico’s federal public de- having never been tried, scar?” he said.
fenders office. Sandoval, and was held all that time According to statistics from
whose office took charge in “pre-trial detention.” Mexico’s federal govern-
of defending Alonzo in An advocacy campaign ment, 43% of the people
2021, contends she was tor- for her freedom was sup- Guatemalan migrant Juana Alonso Santizo arrives at La Aurora held in the country’s prisons
tured and forced to sign a ported by national and in- international airport in Guatemala City, Sunday, May 22, 2022. have not been convicted
confession that she did not ternational groups and by Associated Press or sentenced.q