Iran ( Sudwind , 24thSession of HRC , Attieh Fard , Christians in Iran )

CHICAGO ( Blind Mexican Immigrant Is Example of Fighting to Win Against All Odds )

CHICAGO – Mexican-born Horacio Esparza says his activism on behalf of the disabled began the day after he went blind at age 7 and from then on struggled to have his family treat him the same way his 10 siblings were treated.

“I had to fight from day one so there would be no privileges or overprotection, and so they wouldn’t let themselves be overcome by taboos and try to hide me out of shame, as often happened in those days when there was a disabled person in the family,” Esparza recalled in an interview with Efe.

Forty-seven years have gone by, and after a life full of challenges and difficulties in Mexico and the United States, Esparza since 2008 has been executive director of the Progress Center for Independent Living in Illinois, located in the Chicago suburb of Forest Park.

“A lot of people discouraged me when I applied for the job, and I too believed they weren’t going to hire me because I was blind, Latino and inexperienced, but life had taught me to fight and win in the worst of circumstances,” he said.

Horacio, his mother and siblings remained behind in Mexico when his father migrated to Chicago for work.

After the accident at school that left him blind, he went five years without attending class because his mother feared something would happen to him

He returned to the classroom when he was 12 in Guadalajara, where his family found him a special educational center for the blind.

The family joined Horacio’s father in Chicago in the mid-’70s and the determined teen completed high school in three years.

He got his higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in Mexico’s Valle de Antemajac University, and at the Guadalajara Autonomous University.

Horacio became involved in activism for Hispanic causes and for the disabled when he established a support group called United Sightless Latinos of Illinois.

They would meet Saturdays with the undocumented blind, who had no right to rehab services, to teach them Braille and notions about orientation, movement and daily activities. “Motivation, acceptance and adaptation to a new life are very important,” he said.

Horacio Esparza has also hosted since 2005 a Saturday radio program on which the blind can share their experiences, and runs a campaign to make sure that immigration reform does not forget about the undocumented disabled.

Colombia ( A retired Colombian police general for President arrested for money laundering )

 
BOGOTA – A retired Colombian police general who was head of presidential security during the 2002-2010 tenure of Alvaro Uribe was arrested Monday on suspicion of money laundering.

Gen. Flavio Buitrago has been under investigation for his connection to Marco Antonio Gil Garzon, alias “El Papero,” who was convicted earlier this month of shipping large quantities of cocaine from the Colombian city of Medellin to Houston.

Buitrago acknowledged entering into a business and personal relationship with Gil in 1998, when he helped rescue El Papero’s daughter from kidnappers.

Prosecutors say Buitrago cannot adequately explain the origin of 600 million pesos ($313,373) found in his bank accounts.

The defendant, however, insists he can prove the money was legally acquired.

“I am always prepared to respond to the authorities,” Buitrago told reporters Monday prior to a court appearance. “I am subpoenaed, I come to a hearing, a procedure, with the evidence to demonstrate my innocence.”

Buitrago was taken into custody following the hearing.

The general’s wife, Elba Alieth Pulido, holds a 1 percent stake in Constructora America S.A., identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a front company created by El Papero to launder money.

Another former security adviser to President Uribe, police Gen. Mauricio Santoyo was sentenced in December 2012 to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty in the United States to charges of aiding drug trafficking.

Mexico ( Police find body of man killed in a vacant lot ) Suspects wanted

 Madero, Coahuila. - Municipal police found Sunday morning a body of an individual who was murdered with knives, but they also left a message with threats toward a criminal organization.



The body was in a vacant lot on Constitution Boulevard Montemayor colony, at eleven o'clock  soldiers found the it, during a tour of surveillance.

So far the person is unknown, he is between 25 and 30 years old, was thin and dark, wearing blue jeans, brown shirt and gray calcetones.

According to the information released, the municipal police officers patrolling the northern and circular Constitution Boulevard saw something wrapped in a blanket. They realized that it was a human body, tangled in blanket and tied up with a message written on a piece of cardboard and head inside a blue plastic bag.

The State Attorney's Office said that the body showed multiple stab wounds in different parts of the body.


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Colombia ( Super Model released from prison after doing time for Drug smuggling )

Colombian model Angie Sanclemente Valencia was expelled from Argentina on Thursday 26 and sent to her native country, she was released after serving half of the sentence ( six years and eight months in prison ) that was imposed in Argentina in 2011 after attempting to smuggle 55 kilos of cocaine into Spain .
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The case of 33-year narco model transpired when her accomplice Maria Noel Lopez Iglesias was arrested in December 2009 in Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires , with two suitcases containing several packages of cocaine in order to travel to Cancun.
Argentine researchers claimed that the arrival of the model in this country was intended to mount a large organization to smuggle cocaine from Argentina to Europe via Cancun .
From the declaration of López Iglesias , researchers Sanclemente Valencia was arrested five months later, who always claimed that she had only gone to Argentina to marry her boyfriend .
Colombian model was arrested on May 26, 2010.

Chandler AZ ( Manhunt Monday: Bank robber eludes police )

Posted: Sep 30, 2013 12:55 PM PDT Updated: Sep 30, 2013 2:22 PM PDT

By Phil Benson - email

 

 

 

Suspect in Chandler bank robbery remains on the loose. (Source: Silent Witness)

The suspect walked into a Bank of America branch location at Elliot and Alma School Road around 11 a.m.
Police said the man approached the teller and handed her a demand note. The teller complied and gave the suspect money. He grabbed the cash and took off.
The suspect is described as in his late 30s to early 40s. He is between 5'9" to 5'10" tall and weighs 175 pounds. He has brownish red hair and a receding hairline. At the time of the robbery, he had a moustache and goatee and wore rimless glasses.

NYPD News ( Police looking for two men who were " mystery parachuters " at 3 :07 am and Vanished )

Cops are looking for two mystery parachuters, wearing dark suits and helmets,  who landed near the Goldman Sachs tower in Lower Manhattan early Monday  – and then vanished into the dark.
The two men were caught on video surveillance coming down between the investment behemoth’s West Street building and the Conrad New York Hotel around 3am, but police said they have no idea where the jumpers came from.

“At 3:07 this morning, two individuals apparently parachuted to the front of the Goldman Sachs building,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “We’re not 100 percent sure of the location, if they came out of an aircraft, but they were seen walking away with the parachutes.”
“What they came out of, we don’t know,” he said. “They were wearing black suits of some sort and black helmets and they are believed to be men.”
The Goldman Sachs building is near the World Trade Center.
Goldman Sachs building security notified the NYPD after seeing the landing on surveillance footage, Kelly said.
“Apparently, some camera catches the landing,” he said. “There are no banners, no notes were left.
Obviously it’s something that is under investigation.”
Kelly said there didn’t appear to be any vehicle waiting to pick the men up