Page 12 - aruba-today-20190914

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 14 September 2019
Venezuelan opposition leader denies ties to criminal gang

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO photograph was taken,
SCOTT SMITH while Durán was captured
Associated Press after being injured in a fight
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) with another criminal group
— Venezuelan opposition in Venezuela.
leader Juan Guaidó re- Navarro said he couldn’t
jected allegations Friday confirm exactly when or
that he has ties to an illegal where the photos were
armed group in Colom- taken.
bia, as officials launched Guaidó told BLU radio that
an investigation based on he had no recollection the
photos appearing in social photos being taken, and
media purportedly showing that he is pleased to know
him posing with members both men are no longer
of the gang. free.
The pictures were alleg- Colombia and Venezuela
edly taken in late Febru- share a 1,370-mile (2,200-ki-
ary when Guaidó crossed lometer) border with hun-
into Colombia and made dreds of illegal crossings
a surprise appearance at controlled by criminal
a concert organized by gangs.
billionaire Richard Branson The Rastrojos have been
aimed at helping deliver Venezuelan Opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela Juan Guaido operating in the region for
humanitarian aid to Ven- sits during a weekly session at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Sept 10, nearly two decades and at
ezuela. 2019. one point were considered
Government officials loyal Associated Press a major drug trafficker.
to President Nicolás Madu- Maduro and escalating Nestor Reverol appeared two of the men seen in the However, their numbers are
ro are holding up the pho- tensions between Colom- on state television Friday photos with Guaidó are believed to have waned
tos as proof that Guaidó’s bia and Venezuela. laying out evidence for a members of the Rastrojos after the capture of several
covert journey was orches- Relations between the new probe into Guaidó, who have now been cap- top leaders in 2012.
trated with the help of a neighboring countries have displaying images at the tured. Tarek William Saab, Ven-
criminal gang known as the been souring for months center of the controversy. The photos show both men ezuela’s attorney general
Rastrojos, an accusation he amid the bitter power “They prove yet again posing individually with and a Maduro ally, took to
denies. struggle and humanitar- Guaido’s association with Guaidó before a wooded state TV saying the Rastro-
“That day I took photos with ian crisis in Venezuela. In all the terrorist actions be- background. jos are one of Colombia’s
many people,” Guaidó recent weeks, Colombian ing planned in Venezuela Navarro identified one of most notorious cartels that
told Colombia’s BLU radio. President Iván Duque and to disrupt the stability and the men as Albeiro Lobo deals in drugs, extortion
“Evidently it’s hard to know Maduro have each ac- peace of our democracy,” Quintero, alias Brother, and murder.
who is asking you for a pho- cused one another of har- Reverol said of the images. and the other as Jhon Saab announced the
to.” boring illegal armed groups Gen. Luis Fernando Navar- Jairo Durán, alias Menor. opening of the criminal
The spat over the pictures plotting attacks across their ro, the commander of Co- Quintero allegedly turned probe, while rejecting
comes amid Guaido’s border. lombia’s military, confirmed himself into Colombian au- Guaidó’s claim he had no
nearly year-long bid to oust Maduro’s Interior Minister to local media Friday that thorities sometime after the idea who the men were.q

Fire at hospital in Brazil kills 11 people, many elderly

By ANNA JEAN KAISER among the dead. to enter the hospital on Fri-
CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA “They said to stay closed off day morning and they are
Associated Press in the rooms so the smoke investigating the case.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A couldn’t get in, and that it As the fire burned, medical
fire raced through a hospi- was under control. But in workers in surgical masks
tal in Rio de Janeiro, forc- reality, it wasn’t under con- rolled equipment in the
ing staff to wheel patients trol,” he said outside the road as smoke billowed
into the streets on beds or morgue where his mother’s from the building.
in wheelchairs and killing at body was brought. Television images showed
least 11 people, many of “The smoke started coming staff tending to patients sit-
them elderly. from the air conditioning ting in wheelchairs with IV
Four firefighters were hos- ducts and it turned black poles beside them in the
pitalized after battling the and became hard to see,” street, some on sheets and
overnight blaze at Badim Outerelo said. “It was hor- mattresses. Elderly and in-
Hospital and about 90 pa- rible.” tensive care patients were
tients were transferred to When firefighters arrived, among those rescued.
other hospitals, the fire de- Patients are evacuated from a burning hospital in Rio de Janeiro, they evacuated people In the chaos, distraught rel-
partment said. Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. but it was more difficult to atives tried to track down
A rope made from bed- Associated Press move patients who were patients, unsure of whether
sheets and used in an at- phyxiation as smoke filled stitute of Forensic Medicine. hooked up to medical they had perished in the
tempt to escape the fire still the wards, and some died Carlos Outerelo, 60, was equipment, according to fire or had been transferred
hung from an upper floor when life support equip- visiting his sick mother reports. to another medical facility.
window of the hospital on ment stopped working in when the fire started Thurs- Camila Donato, a police Authorities released a list of
Friday. the fire, said Gabriela Gra- day night. Berta Gonçalves spokeswoman, said police names of 10 of the dead,
Most victims died from as- ça, director of the state In- Berreiros Sousa, 93, was were cleared by firefighters some in their 80s and 90s.q