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Cool beans!
All the latest news from South America
with DON RODRIGO JESUS RODRIGO JESUS RODRIGO JESUS
RODRIGUEZ
in Antofagasta, Chile
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Justice is blind…
In the aftermath of a new spate of kidnappings, Haitian mobs attacked two
suspected kidnappers in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, killing one of them.
The deceased, reputedly in the employ of jailed gang leader Evens Jeune, was
believed to be responsible for kidnappings in the Petionville suburb of the capital.
He was stoned to death late on Saturday, by his neighbours in the Cite Soleil slum.
Witnesses told Aristide Rosemon, the police inspector responsible for the area, that
the mob surrounded the man on a dark street. He drew a gun on them, and fired;
but fortunately no-one was hurt.
According to the UN, 15 people were abducted in the first 11 days of February
alone. Haitians are resorting to vigilantism, impatient at corrupt and incompetent
police force.
“The people don't believe in the justice system,” said inspector Rosemon.
Police are not investigating Saturday's lynching.
Ratscreen
New research reveals that plant extract from the Peruvian highlands may help
defend the skin from UV radiation. The skin of rats, at any rate.
When applied to a rodent’s dorsal area, the boiled aqueous extract obtained from
the maca plant (or lepidium meyenii) provides better protection even than
conventional sunscreen, according to experiments carried out by Cynthias Gonzales-
Castaneda and Gustavo F. Gonzales at the University of Peru.
The report goes on to stipulate that the maca plant only grows in the Peruvian
Central Andes, has traditionally been known for its fertility-enhancing properties,
and that a cosmetics company has recently reported that the polyphenols in black
tea have been shown to provide similar defences against the sun’s rays.
There was, however, no conclusive evidence that rats prefer altitude, need natural
viagra or have a taste for tea.
Mexicans on The Level
Last week, in Mexico City, crowds protested the closing of El Nivel (The Level), the
country’s oldest cantina.
The first establishment to be granted a cantina license (in 1855), El Nivel’s cultural
prominence was in no small measure due to its proximity to the National Palace.
Presidents having been dropping in for over a hundred years, as have prestigious
visitors to Mexico, like Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.
But El Nivel’s saloon doors swung shut for the last time on January 2nd, when the
occupiers lost their legal dispute with the owners, the National Autonomous
University of Mexico. Ruben Aguirre, the occupier, said the case hinged on
documents owned by his father. Unfortunately, Senor Aguirre Snr is dead.
Hundreds of former patrons, beers in hand, met in front of the padlocked bar to
declare it “a Mexican cultural and drinking heritage site.”
Reading from a manifesto defending El Nivel, protestor Marco Rascon announced:
“We consider it a place of learning at the university of life.”
Old news - also in Mexico
Paleontologist Martha Carolina Aguillon Martinez told assembled journalists how
she discovered a totally new breed of (extinct) dinosaur in the deserts of north-
eastern Mexico: “I was basically collecting trash,” said the scientist.
It has been twelve years since Ms Martinez unearthed a bone while teaching
excavation techniques to schoolchildren from Saltillo, Coahuila. But now fellow
paleontologists from the Utah Museum of Natural History have decided – after much
careful thought – that it belonged to a “helmet-crested, duck-billed dinosaur”, a
completely new species.
Velafrons coahuilensis is some 72 million years old, said Terry Gates, Utah Museum’s
chief bone-collector. At 30-35 feet long, it was about the size of a Tyrannosaurus
rex; being a vegetarian, though, it was rather less intimidating.
By far the most exciting aspect of Velafrons coahuilensis is the shape of its nasal
passages, and the fact that they were on top of its head, a skull composition
thought to have given it a unique call.
"They were like little trumpeters,” said Gates. “This is totally odd and freakish.” And
then, for good measure: “Velafrons was probably a beach bum.”
… blind, but not dumb
On Monday a San Juan judge ruled that an alleged member of Puerto Rico’s militant
independence group, Los Macheteros, should be extradited to Connecticut to face
charges of robbery.
Aside from his connection with a group claiming responsibility for several bombings,
Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, 65, is suspected of participation in the Sept. 12, 1983,
robbery of $7 million from a Wells Fargo armoured car depot in the town of West
Hartford, CT.
After nearly 25 years as a fugitive, he was finally arrested on February 7th, by the
FBI. He now faces an array of charges including robbery and transportation of
stolen money. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 275 years in
prison.
In court on Monday, Gonzalez Claudio’s defence lawyers argued that he is a political
prisoner and therefore ought to be permitted to remain on the island for the
duration of the case.
Judge Marcos Lopez said no.
© lizardmagazine.com, 2008
The Lizard's round up of all the latest news from South America appears every
Wednesday.
Back to the homepage
All the latest news from South America
with DON RODRIGO JESUS RODRIGO JESUS RODRIGO JESUS
RODRIGUEZ
in Antofagasta, Chile
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Justice is blind…
In the aftermath of a new spate of kidnappings, Haitian mobs attacked two
suspected kidnappers in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, killing one of them.
The deceased, reputedly in the employ of jailed gang leader Evens Jeune, was
believed to be responsible for kidnappings in the Petionville suburb of the capital.
He was stoned to death late on Saturday, by his neighbours in the Cite Soleil slum.
Witnesses told Aristide Rosemon, the police inspector responsible for the area, that
the mob surrounded the man on a dark street. He drew a gun on them, and fired;
but fortunately no-one was hurt.
According to the UN, 15 people were abducted in the first 11 days of February
alone. Haitians are resorting to vigilantism, impatient at corrupt and incompetent
police force.
“The people don't believe in the justice system,” said inspector Rosemon.
Police are not investigating Saturday's lynching.
Ratscreen
New research reveals that plant extract from the Peruvian highlands may help
defend the skin from UV radiation. The skin of rats, at any rate.
When applied to a rodent’s dorsal area, the boiled aqueous extract obtained from
the maca plant (or lepidium meyenii) provides better protection even than
conventional sunscreen, according to experiments carried out by Cynthias Gonzales-
Castaneda and Gustavo F. Gonzales at the University of Peru.
The report goes on to stipulate that the maca plant only grows in the Peruvian
Central Andes, has traditionally been known for its fertility-enhancing properties,
and that a cosmetics company has recently reported that the polyphenols in black
tea have been shown to provide similar defences against the sun’s rays.
There was, however, no conclusive evidence that rats prefer altitude, need natural
viagra or have a taste for tea.
Mexicans on The Level
Last week, in Mexico City, crowds protested the closing of El Nivel (The Level), the
country’s oldest cantina.
The first establishment to be granted a cantina license (in 1855), El Nivel’s cultural
prominence was in no small measure due to its proximity to the National Palace.
Presidents having been dropping in for over a hundred years, as have prestigious
visitors to Mexico, like Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.
But El Nivel’s saloon doors swung shut for the last time on January 2nd, when the
occupiers lost their legal dispute with the owners, the National Autonomous
University of Mexico. Ruben Aguirre, the occupier, said the case hinged on
documents owned by his father. Unfortunately, Senor Aguirre Snr is dead.
Hundreds of former patrons, beers in hand, met in front of the padlocked bar to
declare it “a Mexican cultural and drinking heritage site.”
Reading from a manifesto defending El Nivel, protestor Marco Rascon announced:
“We consider it a place of learning at the university of life.”
Old news - also in Mexico
Paleontologist Martha Carolina Aguillon Martinez told assembled journalists how
she discovered a totally new breed of (extinct) dinosaur in the deserts of north-
eastern Mexico: “I was basically collecting trash,” said the scientist.
It has been twelve years since Ms Martinez unearthed a bone while teaching
excavation techniques to schoolchildren from Saltillo, Coahuila. But now fellow
paleontologists from the Utah Museum of Natural History have decided – after much
careful thought – that it belonged to a “helmet-crested, duck-billed dinosaur”, a
completely new species.
Velafrons coahuilensis is some 72 million years old, said Terry Gates, Utah Museum’s
chief bone-collector. At 30-35 feet long, it was about the size of a Tyrannosaurus
rex; being a vegetarian, though, it was rather less intimidating.
By far the most exciting aspect of Velafrons coahuilensis is the shape of its nasal
passages, and the fact that they were on top of its head, a skull composition
thought to have given it a unique call.
"They were like little trumpeters,” said Gates. “This is totally odd and freakish.” And
then, for good measure: “Velafrons was probably a beach bum.”
… blind, but not dumb
On Monday a San Juan judge ruled that an alleged member of Puerto Rico’s militant
independence group, Los Macheteros, should be extradited to Connecticut to face
charges of robbery.
Aside from his connection with a group claiming responsibility for several bombings,
Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, 65, is suspected of participation in the Sept. 12, 1983,
robbery of $7 million from a Wells Fargo armoured car depot in the town of West
Hartford, CT.
After nearly 25 years as a fugitive, he was finally arrested on February 7th, by the
FBI. He now faces an array of charges including robbery and transportation of
stolen money. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 275 years in
prison.
In court on Monday, Gonzalez Claudio’s defence lawyers argued that he is a political
prisoner and therefore ought to be permitted to remain on the island for the
duration of the case.
Judge Marcos Lopez said no.
© lizardmagazine.com, 2008
The Lizard's round up of all the latest news from South America appears every
Wednesday.
Back to the homepage
