Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 30 June 2017

Venezuela prosecutor charging ex-national guard chief Expert: Mexico

Pedro Carreno. Benavides Torres was one of opposition party
Maduro announced he seven Venezuelan officials hit by spyware
was replacing Benavides sanctioned by then U.S.
Torres last week and in- President Barack Obama
stead assigning him as gov- in 2015 for allegedly violat- By MARK STEVENSON
ernment head of the capi- ing human rights against FRANK BAJAK
tal district. protesters during the 2014 Associated Press
Opposition protests de- demonstrations that left 43 MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mex-
manding new elections people dead. ico’s scandal of high-tech
and decrying Venezuela’s On Tuesday, the Supreme spying against journalists
triple-digit inflation, food Court issued a ruling and human rights defend-
shortages and worsening broadening the powers of ers widened Thursday, with
crime are continuing to staunchly pro-government experts confirming that
rock the nation as Madu- ombudsman Tarek William leading members of a main
ro pushes forward with his Saab, allowing him to carry opposition party were also
plan to draft a new con- out criminal investigations targeted by Israeli-made
Venezuela’s chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega speaks during a
press conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 28, stitution. On a near daily that are the exclusive pre- spyware sold exclusively to
2017. Ortega charged the former head of the country’s national basis, national guardsmen rogative of Ortega Diaz. governments.
guard Thursday with systemically violating human rights during and police have launched A defiant Ortega Diaz said The conservative National
three months of anti-government protests. tear gas and rubber bul- she wouldn’t recognize the Action Party, or PAN, had
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) lets at demonstrators, some ruling, which she portrayed asked internet watchdog
By JORGE RUEDA deaths to date as well as of whom have responded as a brazen attempt to Citizen Lab to investigate
Associated Press 853 injuries. with rocks and firebombs. eliminate her position as suspicious messages after
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) “In a great number of these The United States, Euro- Venezuela’s top law en- the University of Toronto-
— Venezuela’s renegade incidents, there is evidence pean Union, Canada and forcement official. based cyber-sleuths ex-
chief prosecutor charged of excessive use of force in others have urged the gov- “These rulings are giving posed the scandal last
the former head of the repressing protests,” Ven- ernment refrain from using the power to investigate week.
country’s national guard ezuela’s Public Ministry said force against protesters. human rights abuses to On Thursday, Citizen Lab
Thursday with systemically in a statement, citing the But protests deaths and people who possibly are released a research note
violating human rights dur- use of unauthorized fire- injuries have steadily risen, violating those rights,” she saying it had determined
ing three months of anti- arms and torture of those nearly doubling the num- said. The ruling came on that the cellphones of the
government protests that apprehended. ber of people killed during the same evening that au- party president,
have left nearly 80 people The charges are likely to fur- Venezuela’s last wave of thorities say police investi- its chief spokesman and
dead.Luisa Ortega Diaz’s ther escalate tensions be- political unrest in 2014. gator Oscar Perez stole a the party’s leader in the
office announced the tween Maduro and Ortega The figures released by police helicopter and flew Senate were all sent text
charges against Antonio Diaz, who has become Ortega Diaz’s office Thurs- it over the Supreme Court messages containing links
Benavides Torres a day af- one the president’s most day indicate police and and Interior Ministry while to the same malware.
ter the nation’s Supreme vocal critics. She has filed military officers are respon- firing at the buildings. Mad- The spyware,
Court declared it was bar- numerous motions to the sible for about a quarter uro characterized it as a known as Pegasus, is made
ring her from leaving Ven- government-packed Su- of the deaths. Opposition “terrorist attack.” by NSO Group, which says
ezuela and ordering her preme Court challenging leaders also blame armed Witnesses said the heli- it sells only to government
bank accounts frozen. Maduro’s call for a special pro-government groups copter had hanging from agencies for use against
Ortega Diaz, a longtime assembly to rewrite Ven- known as “colectivos” for its side a large banner re- criminals and terrorists. It
loyalist of the socialist gov- ezuela’s constitution, all of the violence, while Mad- ferring to article 350 of turns a cellphone into an
ernment who recently which have been rejected. uro’s administration insists the country’s constitution, eavesdropper with the
broke ranks with President Meanwhile, the Supreme criminal gangs contract- which empowers Venezue- ability to remotely activate
Nicolas Maduro, said po- Court is proceeding with a ed by right-wing political lans to disobey any regime its microphone and cam-
lice and military officials are complaint filed against her groups are responsible for that violates human rights. era and access its data.
responsible for 23 protest by socialist party lawmaker the bloodshed. q “This case makes it crystal
clear that NSO has been
Dozens of ‘rotten’ military police arrested in Rio used widely and recklessly
across a swath of Mexican
civil society and politics,”
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Civil officers. Seventy arrest war- ing arrested were “rotten Rio’s hundreds of slums, or said John Scott-Railton at
police in Rio de Janeiro are rants were also issued for al- oranges” who would seize favelas. Meanwhile, civil Citizen Lab.
arresting dozens of alleg- leged drug traffickers and weapons in slums and then police investigate crimes. “Once again we see ‘gov-
edly corrupt military police- other criminals as part of sell them in other slums. Residents in favelas rou- ernment-exclusive’ spy-
men. the operation. In Brazil, military police pa- tinely complain about cor- ware being used for seem-
Civil police authorities say Civil police investigator Fa- trol streets and conduct op- ruption and mistreatment ingly political ends.” q
arrest warrants have been bio Barucke told reporters erations. They have a par- at the hands of military Mexican President Enrique
issued for 96 military police Thursday that police be- ticularly strong presence in police.q