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A12 Colombia: fewer
missing, more dead
WORLD NEWSTuesday 4 April 2017 as rivers receding

Lawmakers boycott talks on Paraguay political crisis ALBA TOBELLA
Associated Press
PEDRO SERVIN The proposal would let sit- gible to run since he didn’t supposed analysis and ap- MOCOA, Colombia (AP)
Associated Press ting and former presidents finish his term. proval were illegal,” Acev- — Search teams were still
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) run for a single second Following a Senate vote edo said. digging and probing into
— Attempts to solve a term, and it’s a contentious Friday approving the mea- Opponents have also dense piles of mud and de-
sometimes violent dispute issue in this South American sure, the country was roiled asked the Supreme Court bris whenever anyone re-
over proposed presidential nation where memories by protests that resulted in to overturn the decision. ported hearing the sound
Besides Lugo, a leftist ex- of movement below, as
Students sign the anthem “Patria Querida” as they gather to remember 25-year-old Rodrigo Quin- priest who made agrarian rescuers on Monday re-
tana, was shot and killed at the headquarters of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party during a reform his key campaign fused to give up the search
protest against presidential re-election on Friday, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, April 3, 2017. plank but failed to deliver for survivors of the deadli-
Opposition leaders refused to dialogue to resolve the political crisis caused by a constitutional once in office, former Presi- est floods in the recent his-
amendment that would allow presidential re-election. dent Nicanor Duarte, who tory of this Colombian city.
governed as a Colorado Three days after floodwa-
(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) but has since become ters rushed through the city
a dissident, has also ex- of Mocoa, Colombian au-
re-election hit a stumbling are fresh of a brutal dicta- part of the congressional pressed interest in running thorities say they are not
block Monday when Para- torship that only ended in building being burned and again if the amendment yet ready to concede that
guayan opposition leaders 1989. clashes with police in which becomes law. it is too late to find anyone
boycotted talks with offi- Media reports have sug- a young opposition activist More than 100 demonstra- from among the more than
cials backing the constitu- gested that Cartes’ ruling was killed. tors have maintained a 200 people listed as miss-
tional amendment. Colorado party does not The proposed amendment vigil outside Congress to ing, though time is clearly
Lawmakers who refused have a clear, strong can- was backed by 25 of Para- demand the withdrawal running out. “We do not
to join the negotiations didate to run in next year’s guay’s 45 senators includ- of the amendment. Six po- like to create false expec-
complained that President presidential election. ing members of the Colo- lice officers have been de- tations but where there is
Horacio Cartes, who pub- Cartes has not spoken pub- rado party and some op- tained in connection with a possibility of life we will
lished an invitation to the licly on the issue this year, position lawmakers. If ap- the death of Rodrigo Quin- do everything possible,”
meeting on Facebook, was though he suggested in a proved by the lower house tana, the activist who was said Carlos Ivan Marquez,
not taking part and would 2016 Facebook post that of congress, where the Col- killed in the protests. director of Colombia’s Na-
be represented by his vice the country had not been orados control 44 of the 80 The Inter-American Com- tional Unit of Disaster and
president instead. able to reach consensus seats, the issue would then mission on Human Rights, Risk Management.
Without Cartes the talks on presidential re-election be put before voters in a an arm of the Organiza- Much of Mocoa was strewn
“would seem to be a joke,” and he would stay away national referendum. tion of American States, ex- with rocks, tree limbs, de-
said Efrain Alegre of the op- from the issue. Senate President Robert pressed concern Monday bris and brown muck after
position Authentic Radical Backers of ex-President Acevedo demanded the over “the serious acts of vi- heavy rain caused three
Liberal Party. Fernando Lugo, who was proposal be scrapped as olence and repression reg- rivers that surround Mo-
Cartes later tweeted that impeached and ousted a prerequisite for negotia- istered during the protests.” coa to rise up and surge
he would personally re- in 2012, believe he would tions. It urged Paraguay “to ful- through the city of 40,000
ceive political leaders as have a strong chance and “Before we sit down to fill its international obliga- in southern Colombia Fri-
part of the dialogue. There have said they will seek a talk, the 25 senators should tions” on human rights such day night and early Satur-
was no immediate reaction Supreme Court ruling on withdraw the proposed as freedom of expression, day as people slept.
from the boycotters. whether he would be eli- amendment because its peaceful assembly and The government said the
political participation. official death toll had in-
Paraguay’s constitution creased to 262, though it
dates to 1992 and limits was likely to rise as the rivers
presidents to a single five- begin to recede and more
year term. human remains emerge.
Analysts link fears about Downriver from the city,
presidential re-election to the remains of one young
memories of the long-run- man, a tattoo of a spider
ning dictatorship of Gen. on his ankle, appeared
Alfredo Stroessner, who amid boulders and tree
seized power in a 1954 branches, discovered by a
coup and ruled the country local farmer who was vol-
until 1989. unteering in the search for
His regime was character- remains. Soldiers and Co-
ized by human rights viola- lombian Red Cross workers
tions including the torture arrived shortly to wrap him
and killing of political op- in plastic and took him to
ponents in coordination the morgue for identifica-
with other South American tion. Farmer Mario Fernan-
military governments.q do Melo, wearing a surgi-
cal mask as he searched,
Venezuelan opposition congressman injured in protest said it has been a struggle
to be surrounded by so
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ing the country’s congress. maker Jose Manuel Oliva- crisis last week. The decision many people desperate
— Men wielding sticks and The lawmakers were at- res said colleague Juan Re- was reversed on Saturday to find their missing loved
rocks have attacked a tacked by what appeared quesens received a sharp after heavy international ones. “But at least a fam-
group of Venezuelan op- to be a pro-government blow to the face. Photos criticism. Opposition lead- ily will no longer be left with
position lawmakers as they group after releasing show Requesens bleeding ers say the judges have the uncertainty.”q
staged a demonstration to chickens outside the coun- from a wound above his to be removed to restore
demand the removal of try’s ombudsman’s office eye. The Supreme Court rul- constitutional order in the
the Supreme Court judges in downtown Caracas on ing threw the South Ameri- economically embattled
who issued a ruling nullify- Monday. Opposition law- can country into a political country.q