Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 4 april 2017
Lawmakers boycott talks on Paraguay political crisis Colombia: fewer
missing, more dead
PEDRO SERVIN The proposal would let sit- gible to run since he didn’t supposed analysis and ap- as rivers receding
Associated Press ting and former presidents finish his term. proval were illegal,” Acev-
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) run for a single second Following a Senate vote edo said. ALBA TOBELLA
— Attempts to solve a term, and it’s a contentious Friday approving the mea- Opponents have also Associated Press
sometimes violent dispute issue in this South American sure, the country was roiled asked the Supreme Court MOCOA, Colombia (AP)
over proposed presidential nation where memories by protests that resulted in to overturn the decision. — Search teams were still
Besides Lugo, a leftist ex- digging and probing into
priest who made agrarian dense piles of mud and de-
reform his key campaign bris whenever anyone re-
plank but failed to deliver ported hearing the sound
once in office, former Presi- of movement below, as
dent Nicanor Duarte, who rescuers on Monday re-
governed as a Colorado fused to give up the search
but has since become for survivors of the deadli-
a dissident, has also ex- est floods in the recent his-
pressed interest in running tory of this Colombian city.
again if the amendment Three days after floodwa-
becomes law. ters rushed through the city
More than 100 demonstra- of Mocoa, Colombian au-
tors have maintained a thorities say they are not
vigil outside Congress to yet ready to concede that
demand the withdrawal it is too late to find anyone
of the amendment. Six po- from among the more than
lice officers have been de- 200 people listed as miss-
tained in connection with ing, though time is clearly
the death of Rodrigo Quin- running out. “We do not
tana, the activist who was like to create false expec-
killed in the protests. tations but where there is
Students sign the anthem “Patria Querida” as they gather to remember 25-year-old Rodrigo Quin- The Inter-American Com- a possibility of life we will
tana, was shot and killed at the headquarters of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party during a mission on Human Rights, do everything possible,”
protest against presidential re-election on Friday, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, April 3, 2017. an arm of the Organiza- said Carlos Ivan Marquez,
Opposition leaders refused to dialogue to resolve the political crisis caused by a constitutional tion of American States, ex- director of Colombia’s Na-
amendment that would allow presidential re-election. pressed concern Monday
(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) over “the serious acts of vi- tional Unit of Disaster and
Risk Management.
olence and repression reg- Much of Mocoa was strewn
re-election hit a stumbling are fresh of a brutal dicta- part of the congressional istered during the protests.” with rocks, tree limbs, de-
block Monday when Para- torship that only ended in building being burned and It urged Paraguay “to ful- bris and brown muck after
guayan opposition leaders 1989. clashes with police in which fill its international obliga- heavy rain caused three
boycotted talks with offi- Media reports have sug- a young opposition activist tions” on human rights such rivers that surround Mo-
cials backing the constitu- gested that Cartes’ ruling was killed. as freedom of expression, coa to rise up and surge
tional amendment. Colorado party does not The proposed amendment peaceful assembly and through the city of 40,000
Lawmakers who refused have a clear, strong can- was backed by 25 of Para- political participation. in southern Colombia Fri-
to join the negotiations didate to run in next year’s guay’s 45 senators includ- Paraguay’s constitution day night and early Satur-
complained that President presidential election. ing members of the Colo- dates to 1992 and limits day as people slept.
Horacio Cartes, who pub- Cartes has not spoken pub- rado party and some op- presidents to a single five- The government said the
lished an invitation to the licly on the issue this year, position lawmakers. If ap- year term. official death toll had in-
meeting on Facebook, was though he suggested in a proved by the lower house Analysts link fears about creased to 262, though it
not taking part and would 2016 Facebook post that of congress, where the Col- presidential re-election to was likely to rise as the rivers
be represented by his vice the country had not been orados control 44 of the 80 memories of the long-run- begin to recede and more
president instead. able to reach consensus seats, the issue would then ning dictatorship of Gen. human remains emerge.
Without Cartes the talks on presidential re-election be put before voters in a Alfredo Stroessner, who Downriver from the city,
“would seem to be a joke,” and he would stay away national referendum. seized power in a 1954 the remains of one young
said Efrain Alegre of the op- from the issue. Senate President Robert coup and ruled the country man, a tattoo of a spider
position Authentic Radical Backers of ex-President Acevedo demanded the until 1989. on his ankle, appeared
Liberal Party. Fernando Lugo, who was proposal be scrapped as His regime was character- amid boulders and tree
Cartes later tweeted that impeached and ousted a prerequisite for negotia- ized by human rights viola- branches, discovered by a
he would personally re- in 2012, believe he would tions. tions including the torture local farmer who was vol-
ceive political leaders as have a strong chance and “Before we sit down to and killing of political op- unteering in the search for
part of the dialogue. There have said they will seek a talk, the 25 senators should ponents in coordination remains. Soldiers and Co-
was no immediate reaction Supreme Court ruling on withdraw the proposed with other South American lombian Red Cross workers
from the boycotters. whether he would be eli- amendment because its military governments.q arrived shortly to wrap him
Venezuelan opposition congressman injured in protest in plastic and took him to
the morgue for identifica-
tion. Farmer Mario Fernan-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ing the country’s congress. maker Jose Manuel Oliva- crisis last week. The decision do Melo, wearing a surgi-
— Men wielding sticks and The lawmakers were at- res said colleague Juan Re- was reversed on Saturday cal mask as he searched,
rocks have attacked a tacked by what appeared quesens received a sharp after heavy international said it has been a struggle
group of Venezuelan op- to be a pro-government blow to the face. Photos criticism. Opposition lead- to be surrounded by so
position lawmakers as they group after releasing show Requesens bleeding ers say the judges have many people desperate
staged a demonstration to chickens outside the coun- from a wound above his to be removed to restore to find their missing loved
demand the removal of try’s ombudsman’s office eye. The Supreme Court rul- constitutional order in the ones. “But at least a fam-
the Supreme Court judges in downtown Caracas on ing threw the South Ameri- economically embattled ily will no longer be left with
who issued a ruling nullify- Monday. Opposition law- can country into a political country.q the uncertainty.”q