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Tag: Organized crime

  • As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power

    As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power

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    SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Douglas Guzmán’s TikTok feed was dotted with workout routines and videos showcasing his favorite parts of his country.

    That changed about a year ago, as rights groups, civil society and even some officials criticized El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for violating human rights in his crackdown on criminal gangs, and said that his unconstitutional bid for re-election would corrode the country’s democracy.

    Within days of Bukele announcing his bid for a second five-year term, Guzmán’s feed was plastered with videos describing Bukele as the “future liberator of Latin America” and slick montages of the leader’s “mega-prison” for accused gangsters.

    Views on the social media influencer’s videos skyrocketed. The 39-year-old member of Bukele’s party said he found a new mission: counteracting negative press from independent media about his populist president.

    “(Journalists) don’t know anything. All they do is sit at their desks and watch as President Bukele … makes a massive effort to save thousands of lives. But they don’t see that because they’ve never cared about the lives of Salvadorans,” Guzmán said. “That’s why we’re here. To show the true reality.”

    Guzmán is part of an expanding network of social media personalities acting as a megaphone for the millennial leader. At the same time Bukele has cracked down on the press, his government has embraced those influencers. As the president seeks to hold onto power, he has harnessed that flood of pro-Bukele content slowly turning his Central American nation into an informational echo chamber.

    “A news organization doing an investigation can’t compare to the sounding board that these influencers have because they flood your social media with the government’s narrative,” said Roberto Dubon, a communications strategist and congressional candidate for Bukele’s former party, FMLN. “What you have is an apparatus to spread their propaganda.”

    Bukele, a 42-year-old leader often donning a backwards baseball cap, worked years in political advertising before social media became a key to his rise to power five years ago. Since, his approval ratings have soared to 90%, according to a June CID Gallup poll. Bukele’s modern political messaging, charisma and brutal crackdown on the country’s gangs only continue to win him fans domestically and abroad even in the midst of controversy.

    By doing so, Bukele is using a playbook increasingly utilized by 21st century autocrats, said Seva Gunitsky, a political scientist at the University of Toronto.

    Social media was once hailed as the ultimate democratic tool to organize protests, even revolutions, across the world. Now, governments from Russia to Uganda are now using it to control the narrative.

    “They use this tool of liberation technology to actually prolong and strengthen their rule,” Gunitsky said. Such governments use influencers because their content “doesn’t look as much like propaganda and is more about shaping the narrative in more subtle ways.”

    Under Bukele, El Salvador constructed a sophisticated communications machine. It locked down access to information out of line with official messaging and hired teams of former journalists to produce blockbuster-quality videos showcasing security forces taking on the nation’s gangs. The government also mimicked Russia, building an army of tech-savvy contractors – or “trolls” – to create fake social media accounts, spread falsities and harass critics.

    At the same time his message of a strong-handed response to gang violence rippled across the region, gaining traction in other nations struggling with crime across Latin America and Caribbean.

    With it, an “entire industry” has been born as influencers latch onto the president’s image, said Oscar Picardo, director of investigations at El Salvador’s Universidad Francisco Gavidia.

    A study by Picardo’s university and local investigative outlet Factum examined 69 pro-Bukele YouTube accounts, which collectively have more followers than the population of El Salvador. They found many accounts – which make money through view and subscriber counts – can earn up to tens of thousands of dollars a month, far greater than El Salvador’s average salary. That content is devoured both within El Salvador, and by many of the 2.3 million Salvadorans living in the United States.

    The cluster of accounts pumped out nearly 32 hours of pro-Bukele content in a single day in May, the study found. Almost always mirroring government language, 90% of the videos analyzed contained false or misleading information.

    One account, Noticias Cuscatlecas, may earn much as $400,000 annually posting videos of violent attacks from alleged gang members layered over chilling music, UFG and Factum calculated.

    The channel often concludes videos with the same message: “(Bukele) devised a plan to exterminate this cancer from society, and the incredible thing is that he is succeeding. Now the people no longer live in fear.”

    On TikTok, one video declares “God chose Bukele as president of El Salvador.” On YouTube, personalities dressed as TV anchors attack human rights groups and journalists. They feature Bukele’s critics bursting into flames while claiming their channel “brings you the latest news”. Others sit down for an exclusive interview with the president.

    In April, the president of El Salvador’s congress Ernesto Castro announced he was opening the assembly to YouTubers and social media influencers to “inform with objectivity.”

    “The right to inform and be informed is a power not just in the hands of media companies,” Castro wrote on Twitter.

    Requests by the AP for interviews with Bukele and his cabinet throughout his more than four years in office have been declined or ignored. Two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Bukele’s media machine declined to speak to the AP out of fear of the government.

    For Guzmán and others, the access was empowering, enabling them to grow their audiences. Since, Guzmán has been offered access to other large events like the inauguration of Central American and Caribbean Games, something experts say Bukele used to show a friendly face to the world.

    Press credentials hung around the TikToker’s neck and he brimmed with pride in a government press box, standing among other selfie stick-wielding influencers.

    “Us being here, accredited, I feel like I am a part of this,” Guzmán said, eyes crinkling with a broad smile.

    Around him, others took turns interviewing each other and bragged about how many people were connected to their feeds. One man wearing a Hawaiian shirt leapt over rows of bleachers to get a better signal. When Bukele walked on stage to give a speech, Guzmán and others chanted “Re-election!”

    El Salvador’s government is not the first to open its doors to social media personalities, but researchers and critics says the atmosphere created in El Salvador marks a particular risk as other leaders in the region seek to mimic Bukele.

    Picardo, the UFG investigator, said such accounts post a deluge of content when the government is trying to publicize something, like the leader’s experiment with Bitcoin, its gang crackdown or the Games.

    The researcher warned their increasingly hostile tone acts as a harbinger for further deteriorating press freedoms, echoing State Department alarms of a “villainization” of journalists by Bukele.

    Oscar Martínez’s award-winning news organization El Faro is among those facing attacks and harassment for its intensive investigation of Bukele, including audio evidencing that Bukele’s administration negotiated with gangs in order to dip violence.

    The government opened a case against El Faro for tax evasion, something the news site called “ completely baseless.” Phones of dozens of journalists were hacked with Pegasus spyware, regularly used by governments to spy on opponents.

    In April, El Faro announced it would move its center of operations to Costa Rica due to escalating harassment.

    He worries their investigations is being drowned out by the flood of disinformation, and said if Bukele stays in power in the upcoming elections, it will put reporters in El Salvador “much more at risk.”

    “At that moment, Bukele is going to decide to get rid of any obstacle he has within the country, and the main obstacle he has right now is the free press,” Martínez said.

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  • Alabama riverfront brawl videos spark a cultural moment about race, solidarity and justice

    Alabama riverfront brawl videos spark a cultural moment about race, solidarity and justice

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — As bystanders trained their smartphone cameras on the riverfront dock while several white boaters pummeled a Black riverboat co-captain, they couldn’t have known the footage would elicit a national conversation about racial solidarity.

    Yet, a week after multiple videos showing the now-infamous brawl and valiant defense of the outnumbered co-captain were shared widely on social media, it’s clear the event truly tapped into the psyche of Black America and created a broader cultural moment.

    Andrea Boyles, a sociology professor at Tulane University, said a long history of anti-Black racism and attacks and current events likely magnified the attack’s impact and response.

    “Especially at a time like now where we see an increase in anti-Black racism through legislation and otherwise, whether we’re thinking about history, the banning of Black history and curriculum and all sorts of things across the state of Florida” and elsewhere, Boyles said. “So this is why it is on the forefront of people’s minds. And folks are very much tuned in, Black people in particular.”

    Many see the Aug. 5 ordeal on the riverfront dock in Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city steeped in civil rights history, as a long-awaited answer to countless calls for help that went unanswered for past Black victims of violence and mob attacks.

    “We witnessed a white mob doing this to him,” said Michelle Browder, an artist and social justice entrepreneur in Montgomery, describing the attack by boaters on the Black riverboat co-captain.

    “I call it a mob because that is what it was, it was a mob mentality,” she added. “It then became a moment because you saw Black people coming together.”

    After being inundated with images and stories of lethal violence against Black people, including motorists in traffic stops, church parishioners and grocery shoppers, the video from Montgomery struck a chord because it didn’t end in the worst of outcomes for Black Americans.

    “For Montgomery to have this moment, we needed to see a win. We needed to see our community coming together and we needed to see justice,” Browder said.

    Videos of the brawl showed the participants largely divided along racial lines. Several white men punched or shoved the Black riverboat co-captain after he took a separate vessel to shore and tried to move their pontoon boat. The white boaters’ private vessel was docked in a spot designated for the city-owned Harriott II riverboat, on which more than 200 passengers were waiting to disembark.

    The videos then showed mostly Black people rushing to the co-captain’s defense, including a Black teenage riverboat crew member who swam to the dock. The videos also showed the ensuing brawl that included a Black man hitting a white person with a folding chair.

    As of Friday, Alabama police had charged four white people with misdemeanor assault. The folding chair-wielding man turned himself in Friday and was charged with disorderly conduct.

    Jim Kittrell, the captain of Harriott II, told The Daily Beast that he thought race might have been a factor in the initial attack on his co-captain, but the resulting melee was not a “Black and white thing.”

    “This was our crew upset about these idiots,” Kittrell also told WACV radio station.

    He later explained that several members of his crew, seen confronting the pontoon boat party after the riverboat docked, “felt they had to retaliate, which was unfortunate.”

    “I wish we could have stopped it from happening but, when you see something like that, it was difficult. It was difficult for me to sit there in the wheelhouse watching him being attacked,” Kittrell told the station.

    Kittrell told The Associated Press by phone that the city had asked him not to talk about the brawl.

    Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said on Tuesday that hate crime charges were ruled out after the department consulted with the local FBI. But several observers noted the presence of a hate motivation, or lack thereof, on the part of the pontoon boat party was not why the event resonated so strongly.

    “All these individuals having smartphones and cameras have democratized media and information. In the past, it was a very narrow scope on what news was being reported and from what perspectives,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said.

    The technology, Johnson added, “opened up an opportunity for America as a whole to understand the impact of racism, the impact of violence and the opportunity to create a narrative that’s more consistent with keeping African Americans and other communities safe.”

    The riverfront brawl spawned a multitude of memes, jokes, parodies, reenactments and even T-shirts. “Lift every chair and swing,” read one shirt in a play on “ Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing,” the late-19th century hymn sometimes referred to as the Black national anthem.

    Another meme likened the co-captain’s toss of his hat into the air to sending the “bat signal,” a reference to the D.C. Comics character Batman. One image of the scene captured from bystander video was altered to imitate Marvel Comics’ Avengers characters assembling through magic portals on the dock to defend the Black co-captain.

    Many observers on social media were quick to point out the significance of the city and location where the brawl took place. Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy and the riverfront is an area where enslaved people were once unloaded to be sold at auction. The area is a few blocks from the spot where Rosa Parks was arrested for disobeying bus segregation laws.

    “Much of (the riverfront brawl reaction) is emblematic of the history of Montgomery,” said Timothy Welbeck, the director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University in Philadelphia.

    “This is the home of the bus boycott; this is the home of intense, racialized segregation and various forms of resistance today,” he said. “Even if there wasn’t an explicit mention of race, many people saw a white man assaulting a Black man as a proxy for some of the racist behavior that they’ve seen before. It brought about a sense of solidarity and unified fate, too, in this particular moment.”

    Then there’s the lingering trauma of seeing past Black victims of violence and mob attacks suffer without help or intervention. Here was the rare event in which bystanders not only chronicled the moment but were able to intervene and help someone they saw being victimized.

    In other notable instances, such as George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, bystanders were restrained because the perpetrators were law enforcement officers. In a video of Floyd’s encounter with police filmed by Black bystander Darnella Frazier, people can be heard pleading for the Black man’s life as he gasped for air with a white officer’s knee held to his neck.

    Physically intervening in Minneapolis would have invited arrests and placed the would-be rescuers at risk for harm themselves.

    Historically, lynching victims were often taken from their families as the Black community had to stand by mutely. Emmett Till’s family members in Mississippi were haunted by their inability to stop the white men who kidnapped and killed him.

    Bowder, the Montgomery artist, said the conversation needs to continue.

    “I’m hoping for a hopeful message out of this,” she said.

    Katrina Hazzard, a Rutgers University professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, said she has seen that hopeful message in the comments of support that have crossed racial and ethnic lines in identifying the aggressors and the right for people to defend themselves and the crewman.

    “That’s just been refreshing for me to see and for me to hear across the board,” she said.

    ___

    Aisha I. Jefferson reported from Chicago and Aaron Morrison, who reported from New York, is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. AP reporter Gary Fields contributed from Washington, D.C.

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  • As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power

    As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power

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    SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Douglas Guzmán’s TikTok feed was dotted with workout routines and videos showcasing his favorite parts of his country.

    That changed about a year ago, as rights groups, civil society and even some officials criticized El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for violating human rights in his crackdown on criminal gangs, and said that his unconstitutional bid for re-election would corrode the country’s democracy.

    Within days of Bukele announcing his bid for a second five-year term, Guzmán’s feed was plastered with videos describing Bukele as the “future liberator of Latin America” and slick montages of the leader’s “mega-prison” for accused gangsters.

    Views on the social media influencer’s videos skyrocketed. The 39-year-old member of Bukele’s party said he found a new mission: counteracting negative press from independent media about his populist president.

    “(Journalists) don’t know anything. All they do is sit at their desks and watch as President Bukele … makes a massive effort to save thousands of lives. But they don’t see that because they’ve never cared about the lives of Salvadorans,” Guzmán said. “That’s why we’re here. To show the true reality.”

    Guzmán is part of an expanding network of social media personalities acting as a megaphone for the millennial leader. At the same time Bukele has cracked down on the press, his government has embraced those influencers. As the president seeks to hold onto power, he has harnessed that flood of pro-Bukele content slowly turning his Central American nation into an informational echo chamber.

    “A news organization doing an investigation can’t compare to the sounding board that these influencers have because they flood your social media with the government’s narrative,” said Roberto Dubon, a communications strategist and congressional candidate for Bukele’s former party, FMLN. “What you have is an apparatus to spread their propaganda.”

    Bukele, a 42-year-old leader often donning a backwards baseball cap, worked years in political advertising before social media became a key to his rise to power five years ago. Since, his approval ratings have soared to 90%, according to a June CID Gallup poll. Bukele’s modern political messaging, charisma and brutal crackdown on the country’s gangs only continue to win him fans domestically and abroad even in the midst of controversy.

    By doing so, Bukele is using a playbook increasingly utilized by 21st century autocrats, said Seva Gunitsky, a political scientist at the University of Toronto.

    Social media was once hailed as the ultimate democratic tool to organize protests, even revolutions, across the world. Now, governments from Russia to Uganda are now using it to control the narrative.

    “They use this tool of liberation technology to actually prolong and strengthen their rule,” Gunitsky said. Such governments use influencers because their content “doesn’t look as much like propaganda and is more about shaping the narrative in more subtle ways.”

    Under Bukele, El Salvador constructed a sophisticated communications machine. It locked down access to information out of line with official messaging and hired teams of former journalists to produce blockbuster-quality videos showcasing security forces taking on the nation’s gangs. The government also mimicked Russia, building an army of tech-savvy contractors – or “trolls” – to create fake social media accounts, spread falsities and harass critics.

    At the same time his message of a strong-handed response to gang violence rippled across the region, gaining traction in other nations struggling with crime across Latin America and Caribbean.

    With it, an “entire industry” has been born as influencers latch onto the president’s image, said Oscar Picardo, director of investigations at El Salvador’s Universidad Francisco Gavidia.

    A study by Picardo’s university and local investigative outlet Factum examined 69 pro-Bukele YouTube accounts, which collectively have more followers than the population of El Salvador. They found many accounts – which make money through view and subscriber counts – can earn up to tens of thousands of dollars a month, far greater than El Salvador’s average salary. That content is devoured both within El Salvador, and by many of the 2.3 million Salvadorans living in the United States.

    The cluster of accounts pumped out nearly 32 hours of pro-Bukele content in a single day in May, the study found. Almost always mirroring government language, 90% of the videos analyzed contained false or misleading information.

    One account, Noticias Cuscatlecas, may earn much as $400,000 annually posting videos of violent attacks from alleged gang members layered over chilling music, UFG and Factum calculated.

    The channel often concludes videos with the same message: “(Bukele) devised a plan to exterminate this cancer from society, and the incredible thing is that he is succeeding. Now the people no longer live in fear.”

    On TikTok, one video declares “God chose Bukele as president of El Salvador.” On YouTube, personalities dressed as TV anchors attack human rights groups and journalists. They feature Bukele’s critics bursting into flames while claiming their channel “brings you the latest news”. Others sit down for an exclusive interview with the president.

    In April, the president of El Salvador’s congress Ernesto Castro announced he was opening the assembly to YouTubers and social media influencers to “inform with objectivity.”

    “The right to inform and be informed is a power not just in the hands of media companies,” Castro wrote on Twitter.

    Requests by the AP for interviews with Bukele and his cabinet throughout his more than four years in office have been declined or ignored. Two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Bukele’s media machine declined to speak to the AP out of fear of the government.

    For Guzmán and others, the access was empowering, enabling them to grow their audiences. Since, Guzmán has been offered access to other large events like the inauguration of Central American and Caribbean Games, something experts say Bukele used to show a friendly face to the world.

    Press credentials hung around the TikToker’s neck and he brimmed with pride in a government press box, standing among other selfie stick-wielding influencers.

    “Us being here, accredited, I feel like I am a part of this,” Guzmán said, eyes crinkling with a broad smile.

    Around him, others took turns interviewing each other and bragged about how many people were connected to their feeds. One man wearing a Hawaiian shirt leapt over rows of bleachers to get a better signal. When Bukele walked on stage to give a speech, Guzmán and others chanted “Re-election!”

    El Salvador’s government is not the first to open its doors to social media personalities, but researchers and critics says the atmosphere created in El Salvador marks a particular risk as other leaders in the region seek to mimic Bukele.

    Picardo, the UFG investigator, said such accounts post a deluge of content when the government is trying to publicize something, like the leader’s experiment with Bitcoin, its gang crackdown or the Games.

    The researcher warned their increasingly hostile tone acts as a harbinger for further deteriorating press freedoms, echoing State Department alarms of a “villainization” of journalists by Bukele.

    Oscar Martínez’s award-winning news organization El Faro is among those facing attacks and harassment for its intensive investigation of Bukele, including audio evidencing that Bukele’s administration negotiated with gangs in order to dip violence.

    The government opened a case against El Faro for tax evasion, something the news site called “ completely baseless.” Phones of dozens of journalists were hacked with Pegasus spyware, regularly used by governments to spy on opponents.

    In April, El Faro announced it would move its center of operations to Costa Rica due to escalating harassment.

    He worries their investigations is being drowned out by the flood of disinformation, and said if Bukele stays in power in the upcoming elections, it will put reporters in El Salvador “much more at risk.”

    “At that moment, Bukele is going to decide to get rid of any obstacle he has within the country, and the main obstacle he has right now is the free press,” Martínez said.

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  • Leader of Ecuadorian crime gang moved to maximum-security prison days after candidate’s killing

    Leader of Ecuadorian crime gang moved to maximum-security prison days after candidate’s killing

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    GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Authorities moved the leader of one of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs into a maximum-security prison Saturday, three days after the assassination of a presidential candidate who had denounced threats from the feared criminal.

    President Guillermo Lasso said the relocation of Los Choneros leader Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” was meant “for the safety of citizens and detainees.”

    The gang boss was moved out of a jail with lighter security into a maximum-security prison in the same large complex of detention facilities in the port city of Guayaquil.

    “Ecuador will recover peace and security,” Lasso tweeted. “If violent reactions arise, we will act with full force.”

    About 4,000 soldiers and police officers raided the jail where Macías was being held Saturday and seized weapons, ammunition and explosives. Corrections officials released images of the raid showing several prisoners, including Macías, who is serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and homicide.

    Ecuador’s transformation into a major drug trafficking hub and the ensuing three-year surge of violence reached a new level with Wednesday’s assassination of Fernando Villavicencio during a campaign rally in Quito, the capital. The candidate, who was not a front-runner, was known for speaking up against drug cartels.

    Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the killing. An Ecuadorian judge on Friday ordered preventive detention for six Colombian men described by authorities as being suspected of involvement in the slaying.

    Villavicencio, 59, was one of eight registered candidates for the Aug. 20 presidential election. He had accused Los Choneros and Macías, whom he linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, of threatening him and his campaign team days before the assassination.

    Villavicencio believed popular support would keep him safe.

    “You’re my bulletproof vest. I don’t need one. You’re a brave people and I’m as brave as you are,” he said at a public meeting in the city of Chone, the heart of Los Choneros territory. “Bring on the drug lords. Bring on the hitmen.”

    Interior Minister Juan Zapata on Thursday described the assassination as a “political crime of a terrorist nature” aimed at sabotaging the election.

    The snap election was called after Lasso, a conservative former banker, dissolved the National Assembly by decree in May, acting to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company. Lasso isn’t running in the election.

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  • Thousands in Haiti march to demand safety from violent gangs as killings and kidnappings soar

    Thousands in Haiti march to demand safety from violent gangs as killings and kidnappings soar

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Several thousand people — their faces covered to conceal their identities — marched through Haiti’s capital on Monday demanding protection from violent gangs who are pillaging neighborhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond.

    Haitians’ daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the U.N. Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force.

    “We want security!” the crowd chanted as it marched for two hours from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister’s official residence, where police broke up the demonstration with tear gas.

    “I can’t work. I can’t go out. I’m like a prisoner in my own home,” said Wilene Joseph, a 36-year-old street vendor and mother of two who joined the march out of frustration.

    “I worry about my kids being shot because bullets are flying from all directions all the time,” Joseph said of her children, ages 5 and 7. “The situation is unacceptable.”

    Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, experts say gangs have seized control of up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, killing, raping and sowing terror in communities already suffering endemic poverty.

    From January to March, more than 1,600 people have been reported killed, injured or kidnapped, a nearly 30% increase compared with the last three months of 2022, according to the newest U.N. report.

    On Monday, UNICEF announced an “alarming spike” in kidnappings, with nearly 300 confirmed cases so far this year, almost equaling the number reported for all of last year, and almost three times the total for 2021.

    The agency noted that women and children are increasingly being kidnapped and used for financial or tactical gain. Among those kidnapped in late July was Alix Dorsainvil, a U.S. nurse from New Hampshire, and her young daughter. Dorsainvil works for El Roi Haiti, a Christian organization that offers medical care, education and other services. She and her daughter remain in the hands of their captors, who are demanding $1 million in ransom.

    Parents of young children are particularly fearful that gangs will snatch them when they go to and from school. Nacheline Nore, 40, said her two boys, ages 10 and 8, have to call her every day as soon as they step inside their school, and she rides back home with them every afternoon: “You don’t know who’s going to be the next target,” she said.

    Mario Jenty, a 36-year-old cell phone vendor who joined Monday’s march, said the increase in kidnappings is pushing Haitians into even deeper poverty. “They’re going to have to sell that home to pay for ransom, and there’s a chance they might not be released,” he said of the victims.

    Jenty, who lives in Carrefour-Feuilles, said he would not allow gangs to take over his neighborhood. “I’m going to fight this,” he said. “I’d rather die than leave my community.”

    Jenty joined the thousands of Haitians who yelled “Bwa kale!” on Monday as they marched, a reference to a violent uprising that began earlier this year, with civilians targeting suspected gang members. More than 200 people have been slain since then, and demonstrators vowed to keep the movement alive as gangs overwhelm Haiti’s understaffed and under resourced police department.

    Last October, Haiti’s prime minister and other top-ranking officials requested the urgent deployment of an international armed force to help quell gang violence.

    In late July, Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force, but the U.N. Security Council has yet to vote on a resolution to authorize a non-U.N. multinational mission. The U.S. said last week that it would put forward such a resolution.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.

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  • Italian mob suspect on the run for 11 years captured after being spotted celebrating soccer team’s win

    Italian mob suspect on the run for 11 years captured after being spotted celebrating soccer team’s win

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    Hometown passion for this year’s Italian soccer champions from Naples betrayed the hideout of a long-time crime fugitive, who was captured while riding a motor scooter on a Greek island, Italian police said over the weekend.

    Naples-based Carabinieri paramilitary police said the man, who was on Italy’s list of 100 most dangerous fugitives, was spotted in a photo of fans in a restaurant in Corfu who were celebrating after the Napoli soccer squad clinched Italy’s top league championship a few weeks ago.

    Italian police then headed to Corfu to tail the fugitive, identified as 60-year-old Vincenzo La Porta, who had been on the lam for 11 years.

    mob-suspect.jpg
    Vincenzo La Porta in Corfu, Greece, celebrating a soccer title won by Napoli.

    Carabineri Napoli via Reuters


    They didn’t specify when his recent arrest was carried out, but said officers blocked him going down a Corfu street on a motor scooter. Greek police later said La Porta was arrested on Friday.

    La Porta, considered close to a crime clan of the Naples-based Camorra syndicate, was convicted in absentia of criminal association, tax evasion and fraud, the police said.

    According to the owner of a different restaurant on the island, La Porta had been working there as an assistant chef for the last month or so.

    Police in Corfu said he appeared before a prosecutor on Saturday and was ordered held in jail until a panel of appeals court judges rules on the extradition request. Italy wants him extradited to serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months.

    “We will say he does not want to be extradited,” Athanassios Giannakouris, La Porta’s lawyer told The Associated Press. “He was sentenced long ago for tax offenses. He has started a new family in Greece… He has a 9-year-old boy and is working as a cook to get by. He suffers from heart ailments. If he’s extradited, he and his family will be ruined.”

    Police said they had been following La Porta’s online activity, including financial movements, and waited for him to make a false move that could tip them off to his whereabouts.

    “Betraying him was his passion for soccer and for the Napoli team,” police said in a statement. “With the championship victory, La Porta couldn’t resist celebrating.”

    Investigators spotted La Porta in a photo of celebrants at the restaurant, where he was holding in his hands a scarf in the sky-blue colors of his hometown team.

    His arrest is the latest in a string apprehensions of Italian mafia fugitives who have been caught recently after years on the run.

    In April, Italian authorities announced the arrest of Pasquale Bonavota, a top boss of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate, one of Italy’s most powerful organized crime groups, after almost five years on the run. He had also featured on the police’s list of most dangerous criminals.

    Edgardo Greco, a convicted murderer suspected of belonging to the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate, was busted in February after more than 16 years on the run, including years spent working at a pizza restaurant in France.

    In January, Italian authorities arrested Italy’s most-wanted fugitive, taking mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro into custody after a 30-year manhunt. Messina Denaro’s arrest brought to a close the era of the “Cosa Nostra” Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in “The Godfather” movies.

    AFP contributed to this report.

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  • A fugitive mob suspect in Greece is betrayed by his passion for hometown Naples soccer champions

    A fugitive mob suspect in Greece is betrayed by his passion for hometown Naples soccer champions

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    Passion for this year’s soccer champions from Naples has led Italian police to capture a longtime organized crime fugitive who was living on a Greek island

    ROME — Hometown passion for this year’s soccer champions from Naples has betrayed the hideout of a longtime crime fugitive from Italy, who was captured while riding a motor scooter on a Greek island, Italian police said Saturday.

    Naples-based Carabinieri paramilitary police said the man, who was on Italy’s list of 100 most dangerous fugitives, was spotted in a photo of fans in a restaurant in Corfu, who were celebrating after the Napoli soccer squad clinched Italy’s top league championship a few weeks ago.

    Police then headed to Corfu to tail the fugitive, identified by them as 60-year-old Vincenzo La Porta, who had been on the lam for 11 years.

    They didn’t specify when his recent arrest was carried out, but said officers blocked him going down a Corfu street on a motor scooter. Greek police later said La Porta was arrested on Friday.

    La Porta, considered close to a crime clan of the Naples-based Camorra syndicate, has been convicted in absentia of criminal association, tax evasion and fraud, the police said.

    According to the owner of a different restaurant on the island, La Porta had been working there as an assistant chef for the last month or so.

    Police in Corfu said he appeared before a prosecutor on Saturday and was ordered held in jail until a panel of appeals court judges rules on the extradition request.

    Italy wants him extradited so he can serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months. It wasn’t immediately clear whether La Porta had a lawyer.

    Police said they had been following La Porta’s online activity, including financial movements, and waited for him to make a false move that could tip them off to his whereabouts.

    “Betraying him was his passion for soccer and for the Napoli team,” police said in a statement. ”With the championship victory, La Porta couldn’t resist celebrating.”

    Investigators spotted him in a photo of celebrants of the restaurant, where he was holding in his hands a scarf in the sky-blue colors of his hometown team.

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  • El Salvador sends 8,000 troops and police officers to comb rural province in massive anti-gang raid

    El Salvador sends 8,000 troops and police officers to comb rural province in massive anti-gang raid

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    El Salvador has sent about 8,000 soldiers and police to comb the rural province of Cabanas for street gang members

    SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador sent about 8,000 soldiers and police officers to comb the rural province of Cabañas for street gang members Tuesday, in one of the most massive raids since President Nayib Bukele declared a crackdown on the gangs in March 2022.

    About 1,000 police and 7,000 soldiers fanned out across Cabañas province to set up checkpoints on all roads leading in or out. The raid followed a weekend shooting attack on a police patrol vehicle that wounded two officers.

    Bukele claims members of the country’s notorious MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs have fled to the province to avoid the crackdown. He refers to the gang members as “terrorists.”

    “Cabañas has become the place with the largest number of terrorists, who came seeking to use the rural areas to hide,” Bukele wrote in a tweet. “This massive operation will guarantee greater security for the area, and we will not end it until we find all the criminals.”

    Police dismantled several camps they described as gang hideouts in Cabañas during a previous raid in 2022.

    Bukele’s government suspended constitutional rights and has detained 71,976 people accused of being in gangs, or 1% of the country’s population. They have been jammed into prisons, fueling waves of accusations of human rights violations. As little as 30% of those detained have clear ties to organized crime, the human rights group Cristosal estimates.

    Last week, El Salvador’s congress approved new rules that will allow courts to try accused gang members in mass trials, in an effort to expedite tens of thousands of cases for those detained under the crackdown.

    The Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs long controlled much of the country, demanding money in exchange for allowing even the most basic commercial activities.

    In past raids, the government rounded up large groups of people often based on how they looked and where they lived. It has also carried out mass arraignments, at which judges faced anywhere from 50 to 500 detainees at once, often not considering documents and other evidence that speak to the character of those facing charges.

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  • Fate of American nurse and daughter kidnapped by armed men in Haiti remains uncertain

    Fate of American nurse and daughter kidnapped by armed men in Haiti remains uncertain

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The fate of an American nurse and her daughter kidnapped in Haiti last week remains unknown Tuesday as the U.S. State Department refused to say whether the abductors made demands.

    Around 200 Haitians had marched in their nation’s capital Monday to show their anger over an abduction that’s another example of the worsening gang violence that has overtaken much of Port-au-Prince.

    Alix Dorsainil of New Hampshire was working for El Roi Haiti, a nonprofit Christian ministry, when she and her daughter were seized Thursday. She is the wife of its founder, Sandro Dorsainvil.

    Witnesses told The Associated Press that Dorsainvil was working in the small brick clinic when armed men burst in and seized her. Lormina Louima, a patient waiting for a check-up, said one man pulled out his gun and told her to relax.

    “When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” Louima said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.’”

    Some members of the community said the unidentified men asked for $1 million in ransom, a standard practice of the gangs killing and sowing terror in Haiti’s impoverished populace. Hundreds of kidnappings have occurred in the country this year alone, figures from the local nonprofit Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights show.

    The same day Dorsainvil and her daughter were taken, the U.S. State Department advised Americans to avoid travel in Haiti and ordered nonemergency personnel to leave, citing widespread kidnappings that regularly target U.S. citizens.

    The violence has stirred anger among Haitians, who say they simply want to live in peace.

    Protesters, largely from the area around El Roi Haiti’s campus, which includes a medical clinic, a school and more, echoed that call as they walked through the sweltering streets wielding cardboard signs written in Creole in red paint.

    “She is doing good work in the community, free her,” read one.

    Local resident Jean Ronald said the community has significantly benefitted from the care provided by El Roi Haiti.

    Such groups are often the only institutions in lawless areas, but the deepening violence has forced many to close, leaving thousands of vulnerable families without access to basic services like health care or education.

    Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending services in one of its hospitals because some 20 armed men burst into an operating room and snatched a patient.

    As the protesters walked through the area where Dorsainvil was taken, the streets were eerily quiet. The doors to the clinic where she worked were shut, the small brick building empty. Ronald and others in the area worried the latest kidnapping may mean the clinic won’t reopen.

    “If they leave, everything (the aid group’s programs) will shut down,” Ronald worried. “The money they are asking for, we don’t have it.”

    State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wouldn’t say Monday if the abductors had made demands or answer other questions.

    “Obviously, the safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority. We are in regular contact with the Haitian authorities. We’ll continue to work with them and our US government interagency partners, but because it’s an ongoing law enforcement investigation, there’s not more detail I can offer,” Miller wrote in a statement Monday.

    In a video for the El Roi Haiti website, Alix Dorsainvil describes Haitians as “full of joy, and life and love” and people she was blessed to know.

    Dorsainvil graduated from Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, which has a program to support nursing education in Haiti. Dorsainvil’s father, Steven Comeau, reached in New Hampshire, said he could not talk.

    In a blog post Monday, El Roi Haiti said Alix Dorsainvil fell in love with Haiti’s people on a visit after the devastating 2010 earthquake. It said the organization was working with authorities in both countries to free her and her daughter.

    “Please continue to pray with us for the protection and freedom of Alix and her daughter. As our hearts break for this situation, we also continue to pray for the country and people of Haiti and for freedom from the suffering they endure daily.”

    ___

    AP journalists Megan Janetsky in Mexico City and Pierre Richard Luxama in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.

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  • Pakistan holds funerals as government vows to hunt down those behind the weekend’s suicide bombing

    Pakistan holds funerals as government vows to hunt down those behind the weekend’s suicide bombing

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    KHAR, Pakistan — Pakistan held funerals on Monday for victims of a massive suicide bombing that targeted a rally of a pro-Taliban cleric the previous day as the death toll climbed to at least 45 and the government vowed to hunt down those behind the attack.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing, which also wounded nearly 200 people. Police said their initial investigation suggests the Islamic State group’s regional affiliate could be behind the attack.

    The victims were all from the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, which is headed by hard-line cleric and politician Fazlur Rehman. He did not attend the rally, held under a large tent close to a market in Bajur, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

    The IS regional affiliate — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — is based in neighboring Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and is a rival of the Afghan Taliban. Bajur was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before several Pakistani army offensives that ended in 2016 claimed to have driven them out of the area.

    The cleric’s supporters had gathered in Bajut on Sunday as part of their party’s preparations for the next parliamentary elections, expected sometime in October or November after the current parliament’s five-year term ends.

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to dissolve the parliament in August to pave the way for the vote. Rehman’s party is part of Sharif’s coalition government, which came to power in April 2022 by ousting former Prime Minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence vote in the legislature.

    Khan later on Sunday also condemned the bombing, as condolences continued to pour in from across the country. Dozens of people who received minor injuries were discharged from hospital while the critically wounded were taken to the city of Peshawar by army helicopters. The death toll on Sunday was reported to be 44 but rose to 45 on Monday as a critically wounded person died at a hospital, physician Gul Naseeb said.

    Sharif called Rehman to express his condolences and assure the cleric that those who orchestrated the attack would be punished. The bombing has also drawn nationwide condemnation, with ruling and opposition parties offering condolences to the families of the victims. The U.S. and Russian embassies in Islamabad also condemned the attack.

    Abdul Rasheed, a senior leader in Rehman’s party said the bombing was aimed at weakening the party but that “such attacks cannot deter our resolve.”

    The Pakistani Taliban also distanced themselves from the attack. The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said the attack aimed to set Islamists against each other. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”

    The bombing came hours before the arrival of Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Islamabad, where on Monday he was to participate in an event to mark a decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a sprawling package under which Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan.

    In recent months, China has helped Pakistan avoid a default on sovereign payments. Some Chinese nationals have also been targeted by militants in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere.

    Feroz Jamal, the provincial information minister, said police were “investigating this attack in all aspects.”

    Sunday’s bombing was one of the four worst attacks in northwestern Pakistan since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.

    In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. And in February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters.

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  • Mayor of Ecuador port city slain in shooting that kills 1 other, wounds 4

    Mayor of Ecuador port city slain in shooting that kills 1 other, wounds 4

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    Authorities in Ecuador say the mayor of the country’s third largest city has been slain in a shooting that killed one other person and wounded four more, including two suspected attackers

    QUITO, Ecuador — The mayor of Ecuador’s third largest city was slain Sunday in a shooting that killed one other person and wounded four more, including two suspected attackers, officials said.

    Agustín Intriago, a 38-year-old lawyer, belonged to the local Better City movement in the port city of Manta and was recently re-elected to a term that began in May.

    On his Twitter account, Interior Minister Juan Zapata reported Intriago’s slaying and the other casualties. He said the two wounded people suspected of being involved in the attack were receiving medical attention under police surveillance.

    A motive for the attack, which occurred while the mayor was making a neighborhood visit, was not immediately disclosed.

    President Guillermo Lasso wrote on Twitter that he had instructed the country’s highest police authority to locate those responsible. Police reported that specialized units were deployed at the scene.

    The victim’s sister, Ana Intriago, wrote on her Twitter account that “this crime cannot go unpunished. … Let’s not let them win.”

    Manta is about 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, on a section of Pacific coast used by gangs to move large shipments of drugs to other parts of the Americas and Europe.

    Ecuador is gripped by a serious outbreak of violence that authorities attribute to disputes among organized crime groups. The government is also grappling with a surge in crime that includes armed attacks, kidnappings, robberies and extortion.

    Authorities also said Sunday that a battle between rival gang members held in a prison in Guayaquil had resulted in the five inmates being killed and 11 wounded.

    The clashes erupted in the Litoral prison Saturday afternoon and escalted into the early hours of Sunday, with the sound of gunshots and explosions heard by people in nearby residential areas.

    Litoral is considered one of the most dangerous prisons in Ecuador, with its worst incident a gang battle in 2021 that saw 119 inmates slain. This past April, a riot at the prison killed 12 inmates and injured three.

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  • India’s Modi breaks silence over Manipur violence after viral video shows mob molesting women

    India’s Modi breaks silence over Manipur violence after viral video shows mob molesting women

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken his public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast after a video went viral showing two women being assaulted by a mob

    BySHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press

    Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard to enforce curfew in Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Monday, June 19, 2023. Deadly clashes, which have left at least 130 dead by the authorities’ conservative estimates, persist despite the army’s presence in the state that now remains divided in two ethnic zones. The two warring factions have also formed armed militias and isolated villages are still raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

    The Associated Press

    NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable.

    A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and went viral late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women being surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.

    “The guilty will not be spared. What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi told reporters ahead of a parliamentary session in his first public comments related to the Manipur conflict.

    The violence depicted in the video was emblematic of the near-civil war in Manipur that has left more than 130 people dead since May, as mobs rampage through villages killing people and torching houses. The ethnic violence was sparked by an affirmative action controversy which saw Christian Kukis protest a demand from the mostly Hindu Meiteis of a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.

    The clashes have persisted despite the army’s presence in Manipur, a state of 3.7 million people tucked in the mountains on India’s border with Myanmar that is now divided in two ethnic zones. The two warring factions have also formed armed militias, and isolated villages are still raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps.

    Police said the assault on the two women happened May 4, a day after the violence started in the state. According to a police complaint filed May 18, the two women were part of a family attacked by a mob that killed its two male members. The complaint alleges rape and murder by “unknown miscreants,” and no arrests have been made yet.

    The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.

    They are from the Kuki-Zo community, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a tribal organization in Manipur, said in a statement.

    India’s Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani called the incident “condemnable and downright inhuman.” She said Thursday investigations were underway and that “no effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice.”

    India’s main opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of “turning democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy.”

    Kharge said Modi should speak about Manipur in Parliament, a demand that has been made by other opposition parties and right activists.

    “India will never forgive your silence,” he wrote on Twitter.

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  • Haiti human rights group warns kidnappings and killings are on the rise after a brief respite

    Haiti human rights group warns kidnappings and killings are on the rise after a brief respite

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    A leading human rights group in Haiti is warning about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings as the U.N. Security Council prepares to discuss the country’s worsening violence

    A police officer pats down a motorcyclist at a checkpoint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, July 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

    The Associated Press

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A leading human rights group in Haiti warned about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings as the U.N. Security Council met Friday to discuss the country’s worsening violence.

    In a report issued Thursday, the National Human Rights Defense Network also condemned what it called the government’s inaction.

    It noted that from May 1 to July 12, at least 75 people were killed and another 40 abducted. Among those killed are an attorney, a schoolboy, two morticians and at least six police officers. Those kidnapped include a female journalist from Radio Vision 2000 who was later released. Her husband, the former president of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, was abducted in mid-June and is still being held by gang members.

    Gangs are also accused of breaking into a hospital in the community of Canaan in the northern part of the capital, Port-au-Prince, stealing medical supplies and abducting at least six security guards. In addition, armed criminals last month set fire to the building that housed the Jamaican consulate in Haiti.

    The violence recently forced Doctors Without Borders to suspend treatment at one of their hospitals in Port-au-Prince after the group said some 20 armed men burst into an operating room and abducted a patient.

    Earlier this year, the human rights group said that kidnappings and killings had diminished amid a violent uprising targeting suspected gang members, but noted that gangs have since resumed their attacks.

    The group urged authorities to disband all armed gangs and restore order and security.

    Haiti’s National Police is under-funded, under-resourced and largely overpowered by gangs, who have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince. The department has only some 9,000 active duty officers for a country of more than 11 million people.

    U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has insisted on an international force to help Haiti’s National Police, with one U.N. expert estimating that Haiti needs up to 2,000 additional anti-gang police officers.

    Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry requested the urgent deployment of such a force in October, but the U.N. Security Council so far has opted to impose sanctions on gang members and others. On Friday, it gave the secretary-general 30 days to report back on options to fight Haiti’s gangs, including a possible U.N. peacekeeping force and a non-U.N. multinational force.

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  • Mexico says protest was organized by a drug gang and a cartel car bomb killed National Guard officer

    Mexico says protest was organized by a drug gang and a cartel car bomb killed National Guard officer

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    MEXICO CITY — Mexican security officials claimed Tuesday that a demonstration that blocked the main highway to the resort of Acapulco and led to the abduction of government officials was organized by a drug gang.

    They also said that a National Guard officer had been killed by a car bomb set by a cartel in an earlier attack elsewhere.

    The violence suggested that Mexico‘s crime problem continues to be dire, despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador exaggerating how much he has reduced the number of homicides since taking office in December 2018.

    Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez credited López Obrador on Tuesday for a 17.5% decline in the number of homicides. In fact, about 11% of the decline happened in the final months of his predecessor’s term. In the 4 1/2 years López Obrador has been in office, homicides have edged down by only about 7%, but remain at historically high levels.

    Rodríguez acknowledged that a demonstration Monday by hundreds of people in the southern city of Chilpancingo was organized by the Los Ardillos drug gang. She said the protest was aimed at forcing the government to release two detained gang leaders who have been charged with drug and weapons possession.

    The demonstrators largely blocked all traffic on the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco for two days, battled security forces and commandeered a police armored truck and used it to ram down the gates of the state legislature building.

    Rodríguez said the demonstrators had abducted 10 members of the state police and National Guard, as well as three state and federal officials, and were holding them hostage to enforce their demands.

    “A lot of these people were forced to demonstrate,” Rodríguez said, vowing not to use force to dissolve the protest. Rodríguez claimed the Ardillos gang even had two spokesmen, one of whom owned a construction company that got public works contracts.

    Later, the government of the state of Guerrero, where Chilpancingo is located, said that a deal had been reached with protesters to free the kidnapped officials and officers, and return the stolen police armored truck.

    The state government also said demonstrators had agreed to allow traffic to flow once again along the four-lane highway.

    At his morning press briefing, López Obrador said gangs in Mexico had a habit of organizing front groups and protests.

    “This is a practice by some criminal groups, they create social movements to support them,” López Obrador said. He urged Mexicans “not to let themselves be manipulated by the leaders of these gangs.”

    He acknowledged that the nearly two-day highway blockade represented a problem for motorists. “We have to suffer a bit,” he said.

    The demonstrators were also demanding road construction programs and other public works in the mountainous, impoverished region. The government agreed to build or refurbish several roads on the outskirts of Chilpancingo in return for the release of the officials.

    The agreement showed the federal and state governments were open to negotiating with groups they had publicly identified as working for drug gangs.

    And it also suggests the government is willing to leave the underlying situation unchanged: persistent drug gang violence and control in Chilpancingo. Over the weekend, four taxi drivers were shot to death, and at least one of their cars set on fire, in and around Chilpancingo, the state capital of Guerrero.

    And in late June, pieces of seven dismembered bodies were left on a downtown street in Chilpancingo, along with a threatening message attributed to the Ardillos gang. The gang appears to be using the killings to pressure the city’s mayor, who later acknowledged she had met — but not negotiated with — gang leaders.

    Also on Tuesday, Luis Rodriguez Bucio, the assistant security secretary, acknowledged that a car bomb that exploded in the cartel-dominated Mexican city of Celaya, to the north, on June 28, had killed a National Guard officer.

    The Guard had confirmed an explosion and injuries at the time, but never mentioned deaths.

    Rodriguez Bucio said the car bomb had been set by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, which has been fighting a bloody turf war for control of the north-central state of Guanajuato for years.

    National Guard officers were reportedly responding to a report about a car parked with what appeared to be bodies inside. As they approached, the vehicle exploded, sending officers flying.

    The use of a car bomb to intentionally cause law enforcement casualties marks an escalation of the infighting between rival cartels and is reminiscent of a 2010 car bomb blast that killed three people in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez at the height of the 2006-2012 drug war.

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  • Masked men burn a market in a Mexican city plagued by gang violence, killing 9 people

    Masked men burn a market in a Mexican city plagued by gang violence, killing 9 people

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    TOLUCA, Mexico — Masked gunmen set fire to a public market in the central Mexican city of Toluca on Monday, killing nine people, authorities said.

    Prosecutors said the attackers arrived, opened fire, and then doused part of the market with a flammable substance before setting it on fire and fleeing. They said three of the dead appeared to be under 18, but identifications were still pending.

    A statement said prosecutors were investigating private security guards for abandoning their posts at the time of the attack.

    No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Toluca, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Mexico City. Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico, is a city of almost a million inhabitants and is considered part of the capital’s metropolitan area, with some residents commuting to the capital to work.

    Fires at public markets in Mexico are often set by gangs demanding protection payments from vendors, but some have also been set by vendors disputing the possession of spaces within the markets.

    The statement from state prosecutors said that “one of the first lines of investigation is that events may have been related to internal disputes over the possession of commercial spaces” at the market.

    Toluca was set on edge last week by the discovery of at least two hacked-up bodies, and signs claiming responsibility by the violent Familia Michoacana drug cartel.

    The gang originated in the neighboring state of Michoacan in the early 2000s, and while it has been largely chased out of its home state, it has found a new lease on life in the State of Mexico and neighboring Guerrero state.

    The Familia Michoacana has become known for carrying out ruthless, bloody ambushes of police in Mexico State and local residents in Guerrero.

    The attack on the Toluca market came as prosecutors in Guerrero confirmed that four taxi drivers were shot death, and at least one of their cars set on fire, over the weekend in and around the state capital of Chilpancingo.

    That city was the scene of horrific drug gang violence in late June, when pieces of seven dismembered bodies were left on a downtown street, along with a threatening message from a gang.

    The situation in Chilpancingo remained violent Monday, as hundreds of protesters from an outlying town entered the city to demand the release of fellow inhabitants arrested on drug-related charges.

    Protesters briefly blocked the main highway that leads from Mexico City to Acapulco, prosecutors said. According to video broadcast by local TV stations, the demonstrators then commandeered a police armored truck and used it to ram open the gates to the state congress building, which they entered. Legislators were apparently not in session at the time.

    Guerrero is the scene of a bloody turf war between the Familia Michoacana and several other gangs, one of which is believed to be responsible for the killings in Chilpancingo.

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  • Andrew Tate loses appeal against house arrest in Romania as human trafficking case continues

    Andrew Tate loses appeal against house arrest in Romania as human trafficking case continues

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    BUCHAREST, Romania — Andrew Tate, the divisive social media personality and former professional kickboxer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, lost an appeal on Thursday against a court’s earlier decision to keep him under house arrest, his spokesperson said.

    The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled against Tate’s appeal, which challenged a court’s June 23 decision to extend the house arrest measure for 30 more days as the criminal case continues.

    That decision was made days after Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, formally indicted the 36-year-old social media star along with his brother Tristan, and two Romanian women in the same case. All four were initially arrested near Romania’s capital in late December, and have denied the allegations against them.

    Before the appeal court’s final ruling on Thursday, two judges had disagreed on whether or not to uphold the house arrest measure, so a third judge was brought in to preside over the ruling.

    The Tate brothers’ spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said the judges’ initial decision wasn’t unanimous and that offered hope even though they lost the appeal, because for the first time since their arrest, “a judge has ruled that the brothers should be allowed to move freely in Romania, without restrictions.”

    “We consider this to be a great step toward the rightful exoneration of Andrew and Tristan,” she said, adding that although the brothers “have suffered important damages to their reputation, they remain optimistic and continue to put their faith in the Romanian justice system.”

    In June, DIICOT had requested that judges extend the house arrest measure after the agency filed its investigation. Under Romanian law, judges have 60 days to decide whether the case is sent to trial, but it often takes longer.

    Tate, who has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories online and has amassed 7 million Twitter followers, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy designed to silence his views.

    “Very strange that one judge can think the file is garbage and should be dismissed,” read a post on Andrew Tate’s Twitter account after the court’s decision, “and another can believe your liberty should remain permanently deprived. Based on the same file? I’ll let you speculate … I haven’t been outside in 7 months.”

    The Tate brothers, who are dual U.K.-U.S. citizens, won an appeal on March 31 to be moved to house arrest after spending three months in police detention.

    DIICOT alleges that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania, as well as in the United States and Britain.

    There are seven female victims in the case, DIICOT said, who were lured with false pretenses of love and transported to Romania, where the gang sexually exploited and subjected them to physical violence. One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the agency. The women were allegedly controlled by “intimidation, constant surveillance” and claims they were in debt, prosecutors said.

    Andrew Tate was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for getting sexually assaulted.

    Several women in Britain also are pursuing civil claims to obtain damages from Tate, alleging they were victims of sexual violence.

    During their investigations, prosecutors have ordered the confiscation of the Tate brothers’ assets, including 15 luxury cars, luxury watches and about $3 million in cryptocurrency.

    ___

    Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara.

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  • 3 of 9 enter pleas in burglary ring in theft of art, sports memorabilia

    3 of 9 enter pleas in burglary ring in theft of art, sports memorabilia

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    Three of nine people have pleaded guilty to federal charges in a burglary ring that authorities in northeastern Pennsylvania say stole art, sports memorabilia and other items from museums and other institutions over two decades

    SCRANTON, Pa. — Three of nine people have pleaded guilty to federal charges in a burglary ring that authorities in northeastern Pennsylvania say stole art, sports memorabilia and other items from museums and other institutions over two decades.

    Ralph Parry, 45, and Francesco “Frank” Tassiello, 50, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit theft of major artwork, concealment and disposal of major artwork and interstate transportation of stolen property, The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reported. Daryl Rinker, 50, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit concealment and disposal of major artwork and interstate transportation of stolen property, the paper reported.

    Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced charges in June against nine Lackawanna County residents in 18 heists from art, historical and sports museums and other institutions in six states between 1999 and 2019.

    The thefts included Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock art taken from the Everhart Museum in Scranton and a Jasper Cropsey work and antique firearms worth hundreds of thousands of dollars taken from Ringwood Manor in New Jersey. Other artwork, antique weapons and gems and gold nuggets were taken from other institutions along with valuable sports championship rings, belts and trophies, authorities said.

    Rinker’s attorney, Chris Caputo, said that his client was “very sorry” and emphasized that he was not part of the actual thefts. Tassiello’s attorney declined comment and attempts to reach Parry’s attorney were unsuccessful, the Times-Tribune reported.

    Plea hearings are scheduled for two other defendants Wednesday. Three others are scheduled for trial later this year and one person remains at large, authorities said.

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  • 2,700 people tricked into working for cybercrime syndicates rescued in Philippines

    2,700 people tricked into working for cybercrime syndicates rescued in Philippines

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    MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police backed by commandos staged a massive raid on Tuesday and said they rescued more than 2,700 workers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and more than a dozen other countries who were allegedly swindled into working for fraudulent online gaming sites and other cybercrime groups.

    The number of human trafficking victims rescued from seven buildings in Las Pinas city in metropolitan Manila and the scale of the nighttime police raid were the largest so far this year and indicated how the Philippines has become a key base of operations for cybercrime syndicates.

    Cybercrime scams have become a major issue in Asia with reports of people from the region and beyond being lured into taking jobs in countries like strife-torn Myanmar and Cambodia. However, many of these workers find themselves trapped in virtual slavery and forced to participate in scams targeting people over the internet.

    In May, leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in a summit in Indonesia to tighten border controls and law enforcement and broaden public education to fight criminal syndicates that traffic workers to other nations, where they are made to participate in online fraud.

    Brig. Gen. Sydney Hernia, who heads the national Philippine police’s anti-cybercrime unit, said police armed with warrants raided and searched the buildings around midnight in Las Pinas and rescued 1,534 Filipinos and 1,190 foreigners from at least 17 countries, including 604 Chinese, 183 Vietnamese, 137 Indonesians, 134 Malaysians and 81 Thais. There were also a few people from Myanmar, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Taiwan.

    It was not immediately clear how many suspected leaders of the syndicate were arrested.

    Police raided another suspected cybercrime base at the Clark freeport in Mabalacat city in Pampanga province north of Manila in May where they took custody of nearly 1,400 Filipino and foreign workers who were allegedly forced to carry out cryptocurrency scams, police said.

    Some of the workers told investigators that when they tried to quit they were forced to pay a hefty amount for unclear reasons or they feared they would be sold to other syndicates, police said, adding that workers were also forced to pay fines for perceived infractions at work.

    Workers were lured with high salary offers and ideal working conditions in Facebook advertisements but later found out the promises were a ruse, officials said.

    Indonesian Minister Muhammad Mahfud, who deals with political, legal and security issues, told reporters in May that Indonesia and other countries in the region have found it difficult to work with Myanmar on cybercrime and its victims.

    He said ASEAN needs to make progress on a long-proposed regional extradition treaty that would help authorities prosecute offenders more rapidly and prevent a further escalation in cybercrime.

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  • 2.5M Genworth policyholders and 769K retired California workers and beneficiaries affected by hack

    2.5M Genworth policyholders and 769K retired California workers and beneficiaries affected by hack

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The country’s largest public pension fund says the personal information of about 769,000 retired California employees and other beneficiaries — including Social Security numbers — was among data stolen by Russian cybercriminals in the breach of a popular file-transfer application.

    It blamed the breach on a third-party vendor that verifies deaths. The same vendor, PBI Research Services/Berwyn Group, also lost the personal data of at least 2.5 million Genworth Financial policyholders, including Social Security numbers, to the same criminal gang, according to the Fortune 500 insurer.

    The California Public Employees Retirement system said they were offering affected members two years of free credit monitoring. Genworth said in a statement posted online it would offer credit monitoring and ID theft protection.

    The U.S. is imposing sanctions on four firms and one individual connected to the Wagner Group. The Russian mercenary group led a brief revolt against the Kremlin last week.

    A hiring sign is displayed at a restaurant in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Wednesday, May 10, 2023. On Wednesday, the Labor Department reports on job openings and labor turnover for April. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

    Workers in the fields of computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the greatest bumps in working from home during the first years of the pandemic, while it barely budged for laborers in occupations like stockers, truck operators and order fillers.

    Tim Sheehy, founder of Bridger Aerospace and Ascent Vision, pauses during a tour of the company’s facility on Friday, Aug. 30, 2022 in Belgrade, Mont. Sheehy announced Tuesday, June 27, 2023, that he’ll seek the 2024 GOP nomination to challenge Montana Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

    Former U.S. Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy says he will seek the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge Montana U.S. Sen.

    FILE - A sheet of uncut $100 bills is inspected during the printing process at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 24, 2013. More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large pandemic-relief initiatives, according to a new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs designed to help small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

    More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives. That’s according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs designed to help small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years.

    The breach of the MOVEit file-transfer program, discovered last month, is estimated by cybersecurity experts to have compromised hundreds of organizations globally. Confirmed victims include the U.S. Department of Energy and several other federal agencies, more than 9 million motorists in Oregon and Louisiana, Johns Hopkins University, Ernst & Young, the BBC and British Airways.

    The criminal gang behind the hack, known as Cl0p, is extorting victims, threatening to dump their data online if they don’t pay up.

    Genworth disclosed the hack Thursday of the MOVEit instance managed by PBI Research in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Minnesota-based PBI Research did not immediately return a phone message seeking details on which of its other customers may have been affected. The company’s website lists the Nevada, New Jersey and Tennessee public pension funds as among customers of its mortality verification service.

    “This external breach of information is inexcusable,” CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost said in a news release. “Our members deserve better. As soon as we learned about what happened, we took fast action to protect our members’ financial interests, as well as steps to ensure long-term protections.”

    CalPERS had more than $442 billion in assets as of Dec. 31 and about 1.5 million members.

    Security experts say such so-called supply-chain hacks expose an uncomfortable truth about the software organizations use: Network security is only as strong as the weakest digital link in the ecosystem.

    The stolen data included names, birth dates and Social Security numbers — and might also include names of spouses or domestic partners and children, officials said. CalPERS planned to send letters Thursday to those affected by the breach.

    CalPERS said PBI notified it of the breach on June 6, the same day cybersecurity firms began to issue reports on the breach of MOVEit, whose maker, Ipswitch, is owned by Progress Software.

    PBI reported the breach to federal law enforcement, and CalPERS placed “additional safeguards” to protect the information of retirees who use the member benefits website and visit a regional office, officials said. The agency did not elaborate on those safeguards, citing security reasons.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to reflect that Genworth disclosed the hack on Thursday, not June 16.

    ___

    Bajak reported from Boston.

    ___

    Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

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  • Masked detective prevents YNW Melly from facing accuser in murder trial, defense attorneys say

    Masked detective prevents YNW Melly from facing accuser in murder trial, defense attorneys say

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    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Defense attorneys argued Thursday that rapper YNW Melly was being denied the right to face his accuser when a masked witness took the stand to testify about alleged gang connections during the performer’s double murder trial in South Florida.

    Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy permitted Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective Danny Polo to testify with his face covered because he has received death threats from people unrelated to the case against YNW Melly. Defense attorney Jason Roger Williams said jurors are supposed to consider the demeanor of a witness to determine his credibility, and they can’t do that if they can’t see his face, the Sun Sentinel reported.

    “The state could have chosen any expert in gangs,” Williams said. “They elected to choose one who has threats against his life that don’t concern this case, and who is undercover. They have precipitated this problem.”

    Lawyers for the family of a Virginia man who died of asphyxiation after he was pinned to the floor for about 11 minutes while being admitted to a psychiatric hospital have asked the U.S.

    FILE - Death row inmate Rodney Reed waves to his family in the Bastrop County District Court in Bastrop, Texas, Oct. 13, 2017. An appeals court on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, denied a request for a new trial for longtime Texas death row inmate Reed, whose supporters say evidence has long raised doubts about his guilt. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

    An appeals court has denied a new trial request from a longtime Texas death row inmate whose supporters say there is evidence to back his claims of innocence.

    FILE - Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, then wrote a children's book about grieving, looks on during a bail hearing, June 12, 2023, in Park City, Utah. The estate of Kouri Richins’ late husband filed a lawsuit against her on Tuesday, June 27, seeking over $13 million in damages. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool, File)

    A lawsuit against a Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and now stands charged with his murder is seeking over $13 million in damages.

    FILE - Officers escort Richard Matthew Allen out of the Carroll County courthouse following a hearing, Nov. 22, 2022, in Delphi, Ind. Allen confessed multiple times to the murders of two teenage girls — Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14 — he is charged with killing in a phone call to his wife while in prison, according to court documents released Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

    An Indiana man charged with killing two teenage girls confessed multiple times to the murders in a phone call to his wife while in prison.

    Polo was eventually allowed to testify, tying YNW Melly, whose legal name is Jamell Demons, to membership in G-Shine, an offshoot of the Bloods. Polo said there are hundreds of photos of Demons with other Bloods.

    Demons, 24, is facing a possible death sentence for the October 2018 fatal shooting of his childhood friends, Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr.

    Williams and Thomas were both part of the YNW collective, known respectively as YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy.

    Demons, Williams and Thomas were riding in a Jeep driven by Cortland Henry, known as YNW Bortlen, after a recording session in Fort Lauderdale when Demons fatally shot Williams and Thomas, prosecutors said. Henry is charged as an accomplice in the case but will be tried separately.

    After killing Williams and Thomas, prosecutors said, Demons and Henry drove the bodies to an area near the Everglades, where they shot at the back and passenger sides of Henry’s Jeep from the outside to make it look like Williams and Thomas were the victims of a drive-by shooting.

    Prosecutors say the shooting was part of a gang action, while defense attorneys say the motive lacks credibility because Demons and the victims were close friends.

    The gun used in the shooting has not been recovered.

    On Wednesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers argued over whether a cell phone that appeared to be in Demons’ possession at one point on the day of the killings actually belonged to Demons. Witnesses testified that the phone was in the Jeep where the victims were killed, but defense lawyers say the state hasn’t proved Demons held the phone while the crime was being committed.

    Demons gained attention with his breakout song “Murder on My Mind” in 2017. He later worked with Kanye West on “Mixed Personalities,” which was released in January 2019, a month before Demons was arrested on the murder charges.

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