Page 12 - ATD19September2015
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A12
WORLD NEWSSaturday 19 September
Puerto Rico: Mexico arrests
Once-thriving mountain town faces economic abyss cartel figure over
the missing 43
DANICA COTO blematic of the economic ing agricultural center, ture that tourism dropped MEXICO CITY (AP) — Fed-
Associated Press stagnation that is over- producing about 20 per- 80 percent after it shut eral authorities captured
LARES, Puerto Rico (AP) — whelming Puerto Rico, and cent of the coffee grown down last year. a suspected high-ranking
Ismael Rodriguez looked those who live here believe in Puerto Rico and was a Agriculture was once Lar- drug cartel member who
out on a nearly empty pla- it is a warning sign of things bedroom community for es’ economic engine, pro- has been implicated in last
za from the clothing store to come across the island people working in manu- ducing surpluses of coffee, year’s disappearance of
he opened in 1960, now if it doesn’t emerge soon facturing plants along the plantains, oranges and 43 college students in the
hemmed in by padlocked from a nearly decade-long northern coast. It also had bananas thanks to the 25 southern state of Guerrero,
businesses in this mountain financial slump. a prominent role in Puerto to 40 sacks of free fertil- officials said this week.
izer that farmers received State prosecutor Miguel
Angelo Lopez, 74, stands in front of his fresh fruit store in Lares, Puerto Rico. Lares has become em- from the government. But Angel Godinez Munoz an-
blematic of the economic stagnation that is overwhelming Puerto Rico, and those who live here as government revenues nounced the arrest of Gild-
believe the town is a warning sign of things to come across the island if the government doesn’t dwindled, officials instead ardo Lopez Astudillo in a
emerge soon from its nearly decade-long financial slump. gave each farmer $45, statement, and National
which buys one sack of fer- Security Commissioner Re-
(AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo) tilizer, said Mayor Roberto nato Sales later confirmed
Pagan. the detention.
town in northwestern Puer- The town of some 30,000 Rican history, considered “How is that enough to Sales called Lopez Astu-
to Rico. people has lost more resi- the birthplace of the inde- make a living?” he asked, dillo, 36, the “intellectual
“Junior: Fashion Dictator” is dents than any other mu- pendence movement and noting that the number of author” of the students’
the oldest business in Lares nicipality in Puerto Rico in the site of an annual com- farms in Lares has dwindled disappearance. He was
still run by its original own- the last four years, and it memoration of an 1868 up- from nearly 1,500 to less arrested Wednesday in
er, a feat in a town that is has the island’s second- rising against the Spanish. than 1,000 in recent years. the city of Taxco and is sus-
experiencing the deepest highest unemployment In more recent years, it had As the economy continues pected of involvement in
malaise of just about any rate, at 22 percent. In the become a tourist destina- to contract in Puerto Rico, drug distribution, extortion
community on this island in past five years, more than tion for people coming to jobs have dried up, with and organized crime.
the depths of an economic 25 percent of businesses shop for crafts at its open hundreds of manufacturing In November, then Attor-
crisis. have closed and more air market and to visit the plants leaving the island or ney General Jesus Murillo
“I have seen the destruc- than a third of farms have Lares Ice Cream Store, the downsizing dramatically. Karam said it was Lopez
tion of a town,” Rodriguez, collapsed as families flee most famous on the island. Among those hit was the Astudillo who informed his
67, said as he gestured to- to the U.S. or to other more The shop, now closed, fea- once-thriving Eagle In- drug gang boss, Sidronio
ward the plaza. “Look at all prosperous parts of the is- tured exotic flavors like dustries plant in Lares that Casarrubias Salgado, that
the shuttered stores.” land. sweet plantains, garlic and makes U.S. military and rivals were causing trouble
Lares has become em- Lares was once a thriv- cod fish and was such a fix- police uniforms. Some 300 in the city of Iguala. Casar-
people work there now, rubias allegedly instructed
but Pagan said the factory him to defend their turf.
sometimes closes for up to The government’s investi-
two months at a time amid gation maintains that lo-
economic fluctuations. cal police in Iguala illegally
Businesses that managed detained the students from
to stay open in downtown the Rural Normal School
Lares and elsewhere con- of Ayotzinapa on Sept.
tinue to struggle, with a 26, 2014, and turned them
shrinking number of cus- over to the Guerreros Uni-
tomers who are watching dos gang. Authorities say
their budgets. they were killed and in-
“Ten years ago or more, I cinerated at a garbage
used to sell thousands of dump.
dollars a day,” Rodriguez A recent report presented
said. “Now, I only sell may- by a group of indepen-
be $100.” dent experts has discred-
As jobs and farms vanish, so ited many aspects of the
have people. official inquiry, such as dis-
counting the possibility that
Continued on page 27 the bodies were burned on
a giant pyre at the dump.
Venezuela military plane crashes by Colombia border Authorities say they have
identified the remains of
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) crew members survived or in the midst of a border cri- maining bridge connecting two of the missing students.
— Venezuela’s govern- what caused the crash. sis. Venezuela has closed the two countries this week. The identification of the
ment said Friday that an The plane had detected much of its border with Co- Colombia accused Ven- second victim, Jhosivani
air force jet has crashed an “illegal aircraft” that lombia and expelled more ezuelan aircraft of at least Guerrero de la Cruz, was
while monitoring an illegal had entered Venezuelan than 1,000 Colombians to two incursions into its air- announced Wednesday.
flight that had entered the airspace near the north- combat paramilitary activ- space over the weekend. A team of Argentine inves-
country near the Colom- western border with Co- ity and widespread smug- Presidents of the two na- tigators also working on the
bian border. The Defense lombia, according to the gling of goods that are sub- tions were expected to case said Thursday night
Ministry said the Sukhoi-30 military. Drug traffickers sidized at home. meet in Ecuador Monday that “serious questions”
went down Thursday night. frequently cross the border President Nicolas Maduro to discuss the deteriorating remain about the origin of
It was not known if its two and the countries also are Maduro closed the last re- situation.q samples that were tested
and that it does not con-
sider the identification a
definitive result.q
