INTERNATIONAL
Monday, January 4, 2010
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Florida police nab man in Thanksgiving killings of 4 WESTON: A Florida man suspected of gunning down four family members at a Thanksgiving dinner was arrested Saturday night in the Florida Keys after a weekslong manhunt, authorities said. Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said Paul Merhige, 35, was taken into custody without a struggle by US Marshals and Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies at a motel on Long Key.
This photo released by Mexico’s Federal Security Secretary Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010, shows Carlos Beltran Leyva sitting in a police vehicle at an undisclosed location after his arrest. —AP
Mexico takes down second reputed drug lord in 2 weeks MEXICO CITY: Just two weeks after a chilling reprisal attack for troops’ killing of the reputed boss of the Beltran Leyva cartel, police have captured one of his brothers, sending a strong message that Mexico will not back down in the drug war. The Public Safety Department said in a statement Saturday night that Carlos Beltran Leyva was arrested in Culiacan, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, where he and several of his brothers were born and allegedly started their gang. On Dec. 16, his brother Arturo, the alleged chief of the Beltran Leyva cartel, died during a two-hour shootout with marines in the city of Cuernavaca. He was the highest-ranking drug suspect taken down since President Felipe Calderon sent tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police across the country three years ago to fight brutal drug gangs. Mexican officials in the past have described Carlos Beltran Levya, 40, as a key member of the gang, but it was unclear if he took over as chief of the cartel after his brother died. A third brother, Alfredo, was arrested in January 2008. At least one other brother, Mario, remains at large and is listed as one of Mexico’s 24 most-wanted drug lords, with a $2 million
reward offered for his capture. Carlos Beltran was not included on the list, although the Public Safety Department said there had been a warrant for his arrest since 2008. The arrest gave Calderon back-to-back victories in the drug war and underscored the government’s determination to destroy the Beltran Leyva cartel despite the threat of reprisal attacks. Days after Arturo Beltran was killed, gunmen massacred the mother and three other relatives of the only marine who died in the Dec. 16 shootout in Cuernavaca. The brutality of the attack _ staged just hours after the marine was buried in a public ceremony - shocked Mexicans who have increasingly been numbed by daily reports of drug violence. Calderon vowed he would not be intimidated by reprisals. However, authorities were far quieter in announcing Carlos Beltran’s capture, waiting three days to make the arrest public. In its terse statement, the Public Safety Department said federal police found Beltran Leyva on Wednesday carrying two guns, ammunition and a false driver’s license identifying him as Carlos Gamez Orpineda. He later acknowledged he was Arturo Beltran Leyva’s brother, the department said. Public Safety officials said there would be no immediate comment beyond the statement.— AP
Search at Rio hotel goes on as landslides kill 63 ANGRA DOS REIS: Rescuers yesterday searched for more bodies from an avalanche of mud and rock that buried a luxury Brazilian hotel filled with New Year’s revelers, as the death toll from heavy rains in the south of the country stood at 63. Twenty-eight people were killed in the tragedy at the hotel on Ilha Grande-a resort island southwest of Rio de Janeiro-and another six people injured. State officials said another landslide in the nearby city of Angra dos Reis, south of Rio, left at least 13 people dead, part of a series of mudslides brought on by incessant rains that have killed at least 63 people across the state of Rio de Janeiro since Wednesday and left dozens missing. Authorities said the Hotel Sankay was full to capacity with about 40 guests, including children, ringing in the New Year at the idyllic seaside getaway on Bananal beach. The complex is nestled at the bottom of a jungle-covered hillside which gave way before dawn Friday on New Year’s Day, transforming the tourist paradise into a hell. “It was a deafening noise, I’ve never heard anything like it-a loud thunder that wouldn’t stop,” Felipe Gomes Martins, a hotel neighbor, told Brazil news website G1. “There was a lot of earth, mud, trees-trees falling and taking away everything,” said Martins, 32, who described how he and his father helped rescue some 60 people as the landslide swamped the area. Rio’s deputy governor Luiz Fernando Pezao said it was “a vision of horror,” describing it to CBN radio as “a mountain of rocks and trees covering various homes.” Nearby houses had been rented out to vacationers for the holiday period. A fire chief said the death toll at the hotel site could rise to 40, and rescue teams were speeding their search Saturday amid warnings of the possibility of new landslides. “The whole area is in severe danger of new landslides due to the vegetation,” Fire Department commander Pedro Machado told Globo News. About 100 rescue workers and firefighters, aided by rescue dogs, wrestled to remove tons of mud, rocks and thick tree trunks in the hope of finding
victims alive on Ilha Grande, but “the chances of finding survivors are very slender,” Machado said. “We cannot use heavy equipment because of the risk of setting off new landslides,” he said. Authorities said rescue operations would likely continue another 48 hours, adding that most of the bodies recovered earlier were found on land. At least three more had been pulled from the sea. It is still not known if there were foreigners among the dead. The Hotel Sankay, which opened in 1994, catered to Brazilian and foreign tourists looking for a remote beachside hideaway. The island, whose Bananal beach can only be reached by water, is the largest in a translucent bay studded with pristine tropical islands. In the center of the city of Angra dos Reis, a seaside town on the mainland overlooking Ilha Grande Bay about 150 kilo-
meters (93 miles) south of Rio, another landslide buried several houses, killing at least 13, according to a government statement. A top Brazilian geologist said “the natural risk is very severe” in locations like Bananal beach, where thick vegetation grows in unstable ground on steep, rocky terrain. “The occupation of unstable areas is greatly increasing the risk of accidents,” Alvaro dos Santos, former director of the Technology Research Institute, told the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo. Although the rains stopped on Friday, authorities put Rio on alert because of fears of potentially devastating mudslides in its densely populated hillside favelas, or shanty towns. The mudslides have forced 4,000 people to leave their homes across Rio de Janeiro state-about the same number affected by similar mudslides which hit the state one year ago. — AFP
Authorities said Merhige checked into the motel on Dec. 2, using the name “John Baca” and a false Homestead address. He had the same blue 2007 Toyota Camry that had been a key part of the manhunt, but police said it was hidden with a covering at the Keys motel. US Marshals said Merhige, who had withdrawn $12,000 from bank accounts before the killings, paid for his room in advance in cash. It turned out that the license tag on his car had been registered to a Lexus he owned in 2006. Merhige was on his computer when police made entry to his motel room, according to a Marshals statement. There was no indication Saturday that Merhige had an attorney. Authorities said he was being taken to the Palm Beach County jail. Police say Merhige opened fire at a home where 16 relatives had gathered for the holiday in Jupiter, an affluent community about 90 miles north of Miami. He faces four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shootings, which also injured two other people. Police say Merhige shot and killed his 33-year-old twin sisters, Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight, both of Miami, along with two other relatives: his aunt Raymonde Joseph, 76, and his young cousin, Makayla Sitton. Police said Knight was pregnant. Authorities have said Merhige carefully planned the killings. A family member said Merhige was heard saying after the shootings that he had waited 20 years to kill the relatives. Merhige sat through three hours of dinner and sing-a-longs around the piano before the shootings, his cousin-in-law Jim Sitton has said. There were no arguments, warnings or red flags before the rampage, said Sitton, who hosted the dinner and is Makayla’s father. Police said Merhige was taking numerous medications, including Ativan, used to treat anxiety disorders, and may be experiencing symptoms including insomnia, chest pain and restlessness. — AP
Pascarella credited the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” for the tip that led to Merhige’s capture. Merhige has been the subject of a massive manhunt that included a $100,000 reward for information leading to his capture. He is accused of killing his twin sisters, a 79-year-old aunt and 6-year-old cousin on Thanksgiving Day at a family gathering in Jupiter.
Peruvian court upholds 25-yr sentence for Fujimori LIMA: The Peruvian Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld a 25-year prison sentence on the country’s former president Alberto Fujimori, who has been convicted of massive human rights abuses. A Supreme Court review of Fujimori’s convictions was requested in November by his defense lawyer, who asked the high court to revoke his client’s sentence. “None of the 10 pieces of evidence that went to determine his guilt as mastermind of premeditated murder have to do with the issue of him giving the order for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta killings in 1991 and 1992,” attorney Cesar Nakazaki told the court. The defense lawyer also asked for an annulment of Fujimori’s conviction in the kidnapping of a journalist and a businessman in 1992, claiming there was not enough evidence to prove that the former president had ordered the abductions. Fujimori, 71, has been found guilty in four trials since he was extradited from Chile in September 2007. He was found guilty of abuse of power and sentenced to six years in prison in December 2007. In July, he pleaded guilty to charges of illegally paying a 15 million dollar bonus to his security chief and right-hand man, Vladimiro Montesinos, and was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. The sentence is under appeal. And on September 30 he was
given another six year sentence and fined nine million dollars after he admitted charges of wiretapping and bribing journalists, politicians and business leaders. In one of the first reactions to the Supreme Court’s ruling, member of Congress Carlos Raffo said he was “disappointed” by it. “The court has convicted a president who has freed us from terrorism,” Raffo said. “And it has ratified this odious 25-year sentence without any proof of guilt. It was a political settling of scores against Fujimori.” During his presidency, Fujimori proved to be an unrelenting foe of Shining Path and Tupac Amaru rebels active in rural areas. However, his political downfall began in 2000 when a video of Montesinos was broadcast on television, showing the spy chief buying off an opposition lawmaker. Soon after, Fujimori fled to Asia and resigned via fax from a Tokyo hotel. Congress refused to accept his resignation and instead voted to sack him and ban him from public office for 10 years. In 2005, Fujimori, who was trying to stay involved in Peruvian politics while in Japanese exile, flew to Chile on a private jet. On arrival, he was arrested and Peru demanded his extradition, which Chile finally granted in September 2007. Poor health has dogged the former president, slowing trial proceedings. He has been treated
LIMA: File photo released by Peru’s Judiciary and taken on July 17, 2009 shows ex-president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori speaking in Lima during the last audience of his trial for fresh corruption charges of illegally paying his former top aide and intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos a 15 million dollar bonus. — AFP for hypertension and cancer, among other ailments. But the ex-president’s political legacy appears far from extinguished. Fujimori’s daughter Keiko
enjoys her own political career and remains deeply loyal to him. She is likely to run for the Peruvian presidency in 2011 and, if successful, she has vowed to pardon her father. — AFP