Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 16 May 2017

Venezuelans again shut down capital to protest government Veteran journalist
Javier Valdez killed
eral airing of grievances in Mexico’s Sinaloa
against the unpopular so-
cialist administration.As By MARIA VERZA
demonstrations take over Associated Press
Caracas almost daily, nor- MEXICO CITY (AP) — Javier
mal life has continued, Valdez, a veteran reporter
but suffused with tension who specialized in cover-
and uncertainty. At fancy ing drug trafficking and
cafes, patrons show each organized crime, was slain
other the latest videos of Monday in the northern
student protesters getting Mexico state of Sinaloa,
hurt or statues of the late the latest in a wave of
President Hugo Chavez journalist killings in one of
on their phones. Working the world’s most danger-
ous countries for media
class people who have to workers.Valdez is the fifth
traverse the capital city for journalist to be murdered
their jobs have adjusted in Mexico in just over two
their schedules to account months, and the second
for the daily traffic shut- high-profile reporter to be
downs, and are taking sies- slain in the country this de-
tas to wait out the clashes cade after Regina Marti-
between protesters and nez Perez, who was killed in
police.On Monday, pro- 2012.A Sinaloa state gov-
Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, speaks to people attending a na- testers stayed in main ernment official said Val-
tional sit-in against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, May 15, 2017. roads for six hours, then dez was shot dead in the
Opposition leaders are demanding immediate presidential elections. began to disperse under early afternoon in the state
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) a heavy rain. The pledged capital, Culiacan, near the
By HANNAH DREIER dozens dead. Many Cara- ezuela elections. EU foreign to take to the streets again offices of the publication
Associated Press cas businesses were closed ministers said Monday that the next day.More than he co-founded, Riodoce.
CARACAS, Venezuela and taxi drivers suspended “violence and the use of three dozen people have The official was not autho-
(AP)— Thousands of protest- work in anticipation of a force will not resolve the cri- been killed and hundreds rized to discuss the matter
ers hauled folding chairs, city-wide traffic shutdown. sis in the country.”And the injured in protests that publicly and spoke on con-
beach umbrellas and cool- Opposition leaders are de- U.S. has expressed grave erupted after the Supreme dition of anonymity.
ers onto main roads across manding immediate presi- concern about the erosion Court issued a ruling March Riodoce confirmed Val-
Venezuela Monday for a dential elections. Polls show of democratic norms in the 29 nullifying the opposition- dez’s killing on its web-
national sit-in.The “sit-in the great majority of Vene- South American country. controlled National As- page, saying he was driv-
against the dictatorship” is zuelans want Maduro gone The protests were triggered sembly, a decision it later ing about a block from its
the latest in a month and as violent crime soars and by a government move to reversed amid a storm of offices when he was in-
a half of street demonstra- the country falls into eco- nullify the opposition-con- international criticism and tercepted by gunmen.He
was also a correspondent
tions against President Nico- nomic ruin.The European trolled Supreme Court, but outrage among Venezu- for the national newspa-
las Maduro that have left Union is also calling for Ven- have morphed into a gen- elans. q per La Jornada, which re-

Puerto Rico’s development bank forges deal with creditors ported that he was pulled
from his car and shot multi-
ple times.Valdez was a na-
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) affairs. A financial over- to restructure. Puerto Rico principal” and touted the tionally and internationally
— Puerto Rico’s develop- sight board and U.S. District is mired in a decade-long pact as “an example of the recognized journalist who
ment bank has entered Court for Puerto Rico also recession. government regaining the authored several books on
into a deal with financial must sign off on the pact. Rossello said the agree- credibility it had lost over the drug trade, including
creditors that would al- But Gov. Ricardo Rossello ment will allow bondholders the past few years.” “Narcoperiodismo” and
low it to avoid a lengthy said in a Monday state- and other creditors to ex- Rafael Rojo, a spokesman “Los Morros del Narco.” The
latter chronicled the lives
bankruptcy proceeding, ment that the so-called re- change their claims against for Puerto Rico creditor of young people swept up
the leader of the debt- structuring support agree- Puerto Rico’s develop- group Bonistas del Patio, in Mexico’s underworld.
swamped U.S. island an- ment negotiated over the ment bank for one of three said in the government According to the New
nounced Monday.The liq- last two months is backed tranches of new bonds with statement that the credi- York-based Committee to
uidation agreement still has by “a significant portion of varying payment terms.De- tors were voluntarily ac- Protect Journalists, in 2009
to be formally approved its major stakeholders.”The tails were fuzzy about how cepting losses up to 45 unknown attackers threw a
by creditors of the Govern- deal focused on the bank is issuing new debt to cover percent.“We are Puerto Ri- grenade into the Riodoce
ment Development Bank, just one piece of an overall old debt would pan out. cans first and we recognize offices days after it had
which for decades played $73 billion public debt load But Rossello said the bank’s the circumstances in which published an investigation
a major role in the U.S. Ca- that the government of the creditors agreed to “sub- Puerto Rico is today,” Rojo on drug trafficking. No one
ribbean territory’s financial struggling island is seeking stantial discounts to the said. q was hurt. q