La Paz ( Accused Killer Burned Alive in Bolivia )

LA PAZ – An enraged mob tortured and then burned alive a man accused of having committed a murder in a peasant community in western Bolivia, police reported Monday.

Lenard Olivera Cerruto, 35, died around midnight Sunday in the town of San Antonio, near Caranavi in La Paz province.

The mob said that they had applied community justice against the man, whom they accused of having robbed and then killed a vehicle driver identified as Joaquin Paco Lopez.

After capturing him, the crowd held the accused murderer hostage, tied him to the goal of a soccer field and then doused him with gasoline and set him on fire, without the few police officers stationed in the town being able to do anything to stop them.

Olivera was tortured and burned to death in the presence of his family members, witnesses told the media.

Lynchings of this sort are a very widespread practice in Bolivia.

Bolivian authorities and international organizations such as the United Nations have expressed their concern over these criminal acts, which usually are carried out under the supposed protection of community justice, a practice recognized under the country’s constitution but which in no way authorizes torture or the death penalty.

Between 10 and 20 known lynchings are carried out in Bolivia each year, according to human rights organizations.

QUITO ( Mayor-Elect Gunned Down in Ecuador )

QUITO – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa condemned the murder of the mayor-elect of the coastal city of Muisne and asked his compatriots to prevent violence from taking over the country.

“We won’t allow violence to take over. Most of us are good,” Correa wrote Monday on Twitter.

Walquer Vera, 42, a member of Ecuador’s governing AP party, won the election for mayor of Muisne in Esmeraldas province and was to take office in just a few days, but was shot and killed Sunday by unidentified gunmen.

“Brotherly embrace for the family of our companion Walquer Vera and for all Esmeraldas,” Correa said in another tweet.

The interior minister announced Sunday an investigation into Vera’s murder and said a relative of the victim told authorities that the mayor-elect had received death threats.

Interior Minister Jose Serrano said he won’t stop until the guilty parties are identified and arrested.

“We won’t let Esmeraldas become a no-man’s land,” he said.

The National Assembly also mourned the death of Vera, husband of acting legislator Italia Jijon.

The Assembly also demanded that “all necessary action be taken so that this act does not go unpunished.”

Mexico ( Zetas Co-Founder Killed, Mexico )

MEXICO CITY – A founder of the ultraviolent Los Zetas drug cartel was killed in a gunfight with security forces in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, the Mexican government said Monday.

Galdino Mellado Cruz, alias “Z-9,” was cornered last Friday at a residence in the border city of Reynosa, the head of Mexico’s National Security Commission, Monte Alejandro Rubido, told a press conference.

Mellado, reinforced by gunmen who arrived at the home in several SUVs, resisted the federal forces, leading to a battle that left him and four of his associates dead, along with one soldier.

Forensic investigators identified Mellado’s body at the scene based on fingerprints and physical features, Rubido said.

The 41-year-old Mellado, according to Rubido, was the “second-in-command of a criminal group” operating in the area of Reynosa, which sits just across the border from McAllen, Texas.

The initial raid in Reynosa led to the arrest on Saturday of four other members of the same criminal organization and the seizure of assault rifles, grenades and 500 rounds of ammunition, Rubido said.

Two of the three top Zetas bosses have been taken out of commission since the summer of 2012.

Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, alias “Z40,” was captured last July, less than a year after Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano died in a shootout with Mexican troops.

Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with several other former members of an elite, U.S.-trained special operations unit.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account in early 2010 and now control several lucrative territories.

Tamaulipas has been terrorized in recent years by a brutal battle for supremacy between the Gulf outfit and the Zetas.

Mexico (Police Find Drug Cartel’s Training Camp in Western Mexico)

Police Find Drug Cartel’s Training Camp in Western Mexico
The “narcocamp” was discovered in a remote area in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains of Michoacan state near El Pitayo, a town outside the city of Tumbiscatio, a Michoacan Public Safety Secretariat spokesman said

MORELIA, Mexico – Police found a camp apparently used by the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel to train gunmen in western Mexico, security officials said.

The “narcocamp” was discovered in a remote area in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains of Michoacan state near El Pitayo, a town outside the city of Tumbiscatio, a Michoacan Public Safety Secretariat spokesman told Efe.

The camp has a helipad that police suspect was used by the cartel for smuggling and other illegal activities, the spokesman said.

Solar panels were used to generate electricity for sleeping quarters, two kitchens and two other buildings at the camp.

State police found a makeshift firing range and a grave at the camp, but investigators have not yet checked for human remains.

The camp appears to have been abandoned recently based on the fact that food was left behind and there are signs of activity, the spokesman said.

Investigators suspect that the camp may have been used to train the gunmen who work for the cartel in Michoacan’s 113 cities.

Servando Gomez Martinez, who took over the Caballeros Templarios cartel’s leadership in March following the killing by marines of Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, was presumably in charge of the camp.

A high-level cartel member was arrested last weekend, officials said.

Hector Lopez Andrade, Gomez Martinez’s right-hand man in the cities of Tumbiscatio and Arteaga, was arrested last Saturday, the federal commissioner for security and development in Michoacan, Alfredo Castillo, said.

Lopez was arrested along with 154 other people who were posing as members of a vigilante group in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas.

Authorities also announced the seizure of a ship carrying minerals that belonged to the cartel.

The Bets Vision, a Panamanian-flagged ship carrying nearly 100,000 tons of illegally mined iron ore, was seized in Manzanillo, a port city in Colima state, before it could sail for Zhoushan, China, Castillo said.

The cartel mined the iron ore in Michoacan illegally, officials said.

A total of 300,000 tons of iron ore valued at tens of millions of dollars have been seized by authorities since late April.

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Ukraine ( A picture is worth a thousand words )

KRASNOARMEISK, Ukraine (AP) — Armed men identified as Ukrainian national guard opened fire Sunday on a crowd outside a town hall in eastern Ukraine, and an official for the region's insurgents said there were fatalities.

The bloodshed in the town of Krasnoarmeisk occurred hours after dozens of armed men shut down voting in a referendum on sovereignty for the region. One of them identified the group as being national guardsmen.

An Associated Press photographer who witnessed the shooting said two people were seen lying unmoving on the ground and insurgent leader Denis Pushilin was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying there were an unspecified number of deaths.

Several hours earlier, the men came to the town about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the regional capital, Donetsk, and dispersed referendum voting that was taking place outside the town hall and they took control of the building. In the evening, more arrived in a van and a scuffle broke out with people who were gathered around the building. Then they fired shots.

Yemen ( Two Americans shot "gunmen " while getting haircut )

SANAA: One of the two officers at the US Embassy in Yemen who shot and killed a pair of suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen was getting a haircut at a barbershop when the attempted abduction took place, Yemeni security officials said Sunday.

The attempted kidnapping April 24 is the latest evidence of Al-Qaeda’s expanding presence in the capital, a serious challenge to the authority of the already weak central government. 
The barbershop, owned by a longtime Indian resident, is on Heda Street, a commercial road in the southern part of the city where some of Sanaa’s best restaurants, supermarkets and high-end boutiques are located. The Yemeni officials said the armed militants arrived in a battered SUV and burst into the shop shouting: “Police! Police!” The officials said one of the two Americans was having his hair cut, while the second waited for his turn.
They said one of the Americans killed both militants before the pair jumped into their waiting SUV and drove off. Owners of nearby stores rushed to the barbershop on hearing the gunshots but the Americans already had left, the officials said.
Yemeni authorities questioned the two Americans and later gave them permission to leave the country, the officials said. The two fully cooperated with the Yemeni government investigation, they said.
The US State Department said the two Americans, whom it did not identify, were at a Sanaa business at the time of the attack and have since left Yemen. Citing unidentified US officials, The New York Times has reported that the Americans were a CIA officer and a lieutenant colonel with the elite Joint Special Operations Command.
Meanwhile, A suicide car bomber killed six Yemeni army officers and wounded many others on Sunday after targeting a military police building in the southern coastal city of Mukallah, a local security official said.
The blast appeared to be a revenge attack by Al-Qaeda over the Yemeni Army’s campaign to crush insurgents in two large southern provinces.