Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 25 august 2017

18 dead in Brazil boat accident, 2nd sinking this week Puerto Rico starts
pension plan for
struggling retirees
in the Salvador terminal
where the boat was ex- By DANICA COTO
pected. In a statement the Associated Press
Bahia state health depart- SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)
ment said 34 people were — Puerto Rico’s governor
being treated for injuries. on Wednesday signed a
An unconscious 1-year-old law that establishes a pay-
who initially responded to as-you-go pension plan
resuscitation efforts died in and sets aside $2 billion this
an ambulance en route to year for tens of thousands
a hospital, it added. of retirees who depend on
Survivor Edvaldo Santos de a public pension system
Almeida told the G1 news that’s expected to run out
portal that a large wave of money next month.
tipped the boat during a Gov. Ricardo Rossello said
heavy rainstorm. the government’s general
“There were a lot of peo- fund will now be respon-
ple” on board, he said. “It sible for ensuring retirees
took a long time to be res- get a monthly check, and
cued. We were in the wa- that the new defined-con-
ter for two hours.” tribution plan will operate
Matheus Ramos told the similar to a 401K retirement
daily newspaper Folha savings program. The cur-
de S. Paulo he was sitting rent system faces nearly
Residents line the dock as they watch a rescue worker carry a body recovered from the Xingu down the boat sudden- $50 billion in liabilities.
River, in Porto de Moz, in Para state, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, during a search mission for the ly flipped on top of him, “If we had left things as
passengers of the “Comandante Ribeiro” that sank on late Tuesday. banging his left shoulder. they are, our retirees start-
(SECOM photo/Marcio Flexa via AP) “When I came up, a tarp ing as early as September
was on top of my face,” would not have received
By P. PRENGAMAN aquatic travel of all kinds is able to swim to shore. Oth- Ramos said. “I had to rip pension payments that
STAN LEHMAN common. ers were picked up,” Almei- it to breathe.” Salvador, they worked decades for
Associated Press Navy Lt. Col. Flavio Almei- da said. “An investigation one of Brazil’s most famous in public service,” he said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A da told The Associated into what happened will be cities, is located on a pen- The announcement comes
commuter boat carrying Press that the vessel went launched, but at this point insula near a handful of is- just weeks after a federal
more than 100 passengers down in the morning while we are still in the middle of lands. Each day thousands control board oversee-
flipped and sank Thursday traversing the Bay of All the rescue.” of workers, students and ing Puerto Rico’s finances
in northeast Brazil, killing at Saints off the coast of the Authorities reported earlier other people commute said the pension system
least 18 people and leav- city of Salvador. that 22 people had died on boats between the city will face a 10 percent cut
ing dozens missing in rough Twenty-one people were but later lowered the toll to and the islands. given the island’s deep
ocean waters. rescued by naval teams, 18. The vessel was traveling economic crisis. Govern-
It was the second fatal ac- and private boats also mo- Globo News showed res- between Vera Cruz on ment officials rejected that
cident involving passenger tored in and helped an un- cuers pulling people from Itaparica Island and Salva- measure and said they
boats this week in the South known number of survivors. the bay and anxious family dor, about an 8-mile (13-ki- would create their own law
American nation, where “Some passengers were members waiting for news lometer) stretch. q to protect retirees.
Board members did not
Colombia’s Caracol taken off Venezuelan airwaves immediately respond to a
request for comment. The
board also has said that all
By JORGE RUEDA ens to further strain already “Since the war in Iraq, we forced a number of critical newly hired employees in
Associated Press tense relations between have not seen anything as national media outlets out Puerto Rico will be enrolled
CARACAS, Venezuela the two nations’ govern- sickening,” Maduro said of business, in some cases in Social Security. Currently,
(AP) — Colombia’s most- ments, with Colombian Tuesday at a news confer- by refusing to renew their local teachers and police
popular TV broadcaster President Juan Manuel ence with foreign journal- operating licenses. officers do not receive So-
has been taken off the air- Santos saying Thursday that ists, singling out Caracol, In a 2017 report on global cial Security and depend
waves in Venezuela after Maduro is increasingly act- Fox News and the BBC for press freedom by Reporters solely on the public pen-
President Nicolas Maduro ing like a “dictator.” what he considers biased Without Borders, Venezu- sion system. Those repre-
delivered a scathing re- “This is another demonstra- coverage. Earlier this year ela ranked 137th out of 179 senting retired Puerto Rico
buke of the neighboring tion that this regime doesn’t Venezuelan authorities shut nations. “Freedom of the union workers lamented
country’s media, joining a like freedoms,” Santos said. down CNN en Espanol’s press is as scarce as food” the new law was approved
growing list of news outlets Colombian news channel feed after the Spanish- in Venezuela, Vargas told without any public hear-
that have been blocked by RCN was also blocked from language channel aired Caracol Radio, a reference ings or input from retirees.
his government. broadcasting on a Venezu- a report about fraudulent to people’s struggles to find They also said that any cut
Caracol News director elan local cable operator, passports that drew angry basic goods in the country. to the public pension sys-
Juan Roberto Vargas told though its signal remained criticism from officials. In Vargas said the move tem would be devastating.
Colombian radio that the active Thursday on DirecTV. all, about a half-dozen for- came after escalating gov- “We have retirees who re-
channel’s coverage of Maduro regularly accus- eign networks have been ernment actions against ceive $500, $800 a month,
ousted chief prosecutor es foreign news outlets of blocked, including Colom- the station. In the last year, and they can’t live off of
Luisa Ortega Diaz appears spreading a false narrative bia’s El Tiempo and NTN24 he said, three Caracol jour- that,” said Dwight Rodri-
to have been a “breaking about Venezuela’s govern- and Todo Noticias of Ar- nalists have been barred guez, president of a feder-
point” that led to its remov- ment intended to pave the gentina. from entering Venezuela ation representing retirees
al Wednesday. way for a supposed U.S. Over the years Venezu- and some of its equipment of the Puerto Rican Workers
Caracol’s removal threat- military intervention. ela’s government has also was confiscated.q Central union.q