Mexico ( Tourist Town in Central Mexico Plagued by Kidnappings, Officials Say)

MEXICO CITY – At least seven people have been kidnapped in Valle de Bravo, a popular tourist town in central Mexico, with three of the victims already released, state officials said Tuesday.

Three kidnappings have been reported in recent days, Mexico state Government Secretary Jose Manzur said.

The victim was rescued and three suspects were arrested in the first case, Manzur said.

Of the other “six victims, two have been freed,” while the other four “are in the hands of the kidnappers,” Manzur told Radio Formula.

“Certainly, we will have good news in the next few hours,” Manzur said.

The kidnappings are being carried out by two gangs operating in Valle de Bravo, a mountain town of about 60,000 located some 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Mexico City, Manzur said.

The members of one gang are in jail and once the other gang’s members are “behind bars, the matter of Valle de Bravo will be resolved,” Manzur said.

The government of Mexico state, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, has responded to the wave of kidnappings by launching a special operation and deploying more police officers in the town.

“It is essential that there be peace in Valle de Bravo” so tourists will visit the area “in total tranquility,” Manzur said.

Fifteen kidnappings have been carried out in Valle de Bravo in the past month, with victims blaming drug traffickers from other states for the abductions, the non-governmental organization Alto al Secuestro said.

Mexico state registered the most kidnappings in Mexico in July, with 40 cases, followed by Tamaulipas, with 32, Guerrero, with 20, the Federal District, with 17, and Morelos, with 15.

A total of 4,809 kidnappings occurred in Mexico between Dec. 1, 2012, when President Enrique Peña Nieto’s term began, and July 31, or about one every three hours, said Alto al Secuestro, an organization founded by anti-kidnapping activist Isabel Miranda de Wallace.

Official figures show that 2,634 kidnappings occurred between Dec. 1, 2012, and June 30, 2014, well below the number arrived at by Alto al Secuestro.

Mexico ( man killed while repairing truck )

VILLAGRÁN, Guanajuato.- A man of about 70 years he was shot to death while repairing a van near the downtown area. So far the origin of the attack and the identity of the attackers or unknown.

Around 14:20 am on Saturday, elements of various corporations Police and paramedics, they went to the corner that make up the Central Railroad Avenue and Pípila as through a call to the 066 emergency system, reported the existence of a seriously injured person, after being the subject of a shooting attack. arrival, and pulled off to the shop "Vinos La Esperanza", agents found the body of a man about 70, who had at least one gunshot wound to the height of the skull, which remained at a same side of a Ford truck type RAM, navy blue, with plates GM84377.

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Iran ( Iranian Lesbian: We Are The Denied Identity )

Posted on: 7th March, 2014                         

             

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Samira, an Iranian lesbian

As a part of women’s community, the Iranian lesbian community faces problems twice more than other women in Iran. For 8 March, International Women’s Day, we have prepared an interview with an Iranian lesbian who is also active in LGBT rights.

*Please introduce yourself and give us a summary of your activities.
My name is Samira, an Iranian Lesbian. Because of lack of support by my family and other issues in the society, I was forced to leave Iran. I am a member of IRQO (Iranian Queer Organization), for now, I am active in LGBT issues and defending LGBT rights, doing researchers to finally improve the awareness of people with cooperation of my friends.
*Dear Samira, why you were forced to leave Iran? What were your problems in Iran? Was it the only solution to leave Iran?
As I mentioned, lack of support by family, problems in the society, by government and people, these are parts of issues that forced me to leave Iran. As you know, Iranian society is Masculism, and being a woman by itself, does not make you have enough civil rights, now imagine a woman who is a lesbian in this society. After many years of being aware of my orientation, I was forced to play a role, always I was forced to reject myself and wear a mask [of a woman who is not lesbian] in favor of my family and society. But it wasn’t me and my “real self” was oppressed. Regarding the last part of your question, I think abandoning and leaving is better than staying and sufferings in humiliation.
*Suppose the family as a small part of society, were you successful in educating your family about your desired issues? What was their reaction?
I tried in many ways, both directly and indirectly, by talking, showing documents, magazines and essays of homosexuals. But the reaction was always not to hear and pretending that this issue does not exist.
*Did you try to change the situation in favor of yourself in Iran? What was the reaction of street women to you?
Unfortunately no because of the fear of everything I couldn’t act or do any awareness in this issue. But I had some friends who I told them about it, they had a very bad reaction and even made me humiliated. But I tried to explain for them that I or any lesbian is not what you think. I always tried to behave like a homosexual, but the only result for me was depression.
*As an Iranian lesbian, how you explain the problems of this part of Iranian women’s society?
The government of Iran emphasizes the forbidding homosexuality by issuing severe sentences and punishments and also giving medical permission for sex-change to hide this issue in the society. In one sentence, we are always the denied identity. I have had [homosexual] friends who had faced misbehavior and discrimination such as being raped in custody, arrested in parties, deprived of education and work.

Mexico ( Mexican Mayor Accused of Homicide )

MORELIA, Mexico – The mayor of the western Mexican town of Huetamo was arrested on charges of homicide and extortion, the Michoacan state Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.

Dalia Santana Pineda was being questioned by AG’s office investigators in Morelia, the state capital, according to an official statement.

Elected mayor in 2011, Santana belongs to Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Authorities apparently suspect her of ties to Los Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar), the drug cartel that has been terrorizing Michoacan for the last few years.

She is the state’s fourth mayor to be arrested this year on suspicion of colluding with the Templarios.

Two of the other three are PRI members, while the third, Mayor Arquimides Oseguera Solorio of the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, is affiliated with the leftist PRD.

Oseguera was detained after being seen in a video with Templarios boss Servando Gomez Martinez.

Santana is a political ally of Huetamo native Jesus Reyna Garcia, who served as interim governor of Michoacan for much of 2013 and is likewise behind bars for alleged links to the Templarios.

Rodrigo Vallejo, son of erstwhile Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo, was jailed last week after he refused to answer questions from prosecutors about his own videotaped encounter with the Templarios’ Gomez Martinez.

The ailing Fausto Vallejo resigned as governor in June amid a storm of criticism after the federal government deployed soldiers and police in Michoacan in January to end the wave of drug-related violence in the state.

The federal government intervened in Michoacan to fill a security vacuum in the state, where community self-defense groups had formed to defend themselves against the Templarios cartel.

Since January, federal authorities have dealt the cartel a series of blows, capturing or killing several of its top leaders.

LAGOS ( Dozens of Youths Reported Kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria )

LAGOS – Around 100 youths have been kidnapped by suspected members of the radical Islamic militia Boko Haram in the northern Nigerian state of Borno, where four months ago the group abducted more than 200 girls, media reported Friday.

The kidnapping occurred last Sunday when gunmen stormed the Doron Baga community in an attack that also killed at least 10 people, witnesses quoted by the Nigerian newspaper The Punch said.

A witness, whose husband died in the attack, told the newspaper that gunmen attacked the village and kidnapped some 100 youths, prompting many residents to flee.

However, the kidnapping has not been confirmed by Nigerian authorities, who are still unaware of the whereabouts of the more than 200 girls abducted by the same group on April 14.

The extremist Islamic group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the girls and threatened to sell them if authorities did not release “terrorist” prisoners.

Borno is considered to be Boko Haram’s spiritual stronghold and the base of its operations, but the extremists are also active in the neighboring states of Adamawa and Yobe, where the Nigerian government has declared a state of emergency.

Since the killing of its founder, Mohamed Yusuf, in 2009 by police forces, Boko Haram has staged a bloody campaign that has claimed nearly 12,000 lives according to Government estimates.

Boko Haram, which in local language means “non-Islamic education is a sin,” is fighting to impose an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country with a Muslim majority in the north and a predominantly Christian population in the south.

Man beat by two transgenders

WASHINGTON ( Number of Children Caught Crossing U.S. Border Drops ) haha

WASHINGTON – The number of unaccompanied undocumented children apprehended on the southern border of the United States dropped in July to 5,508, compared with more than 10,000 in both May and June, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

DHS said it was the first time this year that the number has been lower than in the previous month.

“While the decrease in apprehensions in July is good news and reflects a positive trend that we hope continues, the current numbers are still higher than the number of apprehensions for children and adults with children during past years,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.

Since October, almost 63,000 children, most of them from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been caught trying to cross unaccompanied into the U.S., which has caused a humanitarian crisis beyond federal agencies’ capacity to deal with it.

The number of minors taken into custody was 7,176 in March, 7,702 in April, 10,579 in May, and 10,628 in June, according to DHS figures.

Johnson repeated the message of the U.S. government that “our border is not open to illegal migration.”

“Unless you qualify for some form of humanitarian relief, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values,” the secretary said.

President Barack Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion in special funds to manage the situation, but lawmakers departed for their summer recess without approving the financing.

“I was disappointed that Congress left for its August recess without acting on the President’s request for supplemental funding to support the men and women of this department who have worked overtime to respond to the urgent situation,” Johnson said.

“In the meantime, to avoid running out of money, I have been left with no choice but to reprogram money away from other homeland security missions,” he said.

DHS is diverting $405 million from other tasks “to support the response to this situation,” the secretary said.