Police Arrest Dozens of Suspected MS Gang Members in El Salvador Raids

Probably the main reason why Central Americans are flooding into the USA is because most of Central America is run by violent gangs of drug traffickers. Rape and murder is common in most cities and it is almost impossible for a teenager to grow up without being recruited into a gang, whether they want to or not.

This is a good sign that at least one government is tackling the issue, although I would be more convinced if some of the arrests had occurred in San Salvador. 5 clans raided out of 600 or so, is a small beginning, but a beginning. 

Will this begin to clean up El Salvador, or will it start an all-out war on the feds?

By Renzo Pipoli

El Salvadoran police captured dozens of suspected gang members during raids across the country Tuesday.

Photo by Rodrigo Sura/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- El Salvador police arrested dozens of suspected members of the country's most dangerous gangs during coordinated raids Tuesday, officials said.

Police captured 37 suspected MS (Mara Salvatrucha) members early Tuesday through registrations and home searches in different municipalities, the prosecutor's office in San Salvador said. Local media reported high numbers of arrests, with diverse counts.

The prosecutor's office said dozens of arrests were made through coordinated, simultaneous operations, all involving alleged MS gang members and crimes including homicide, extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping, theft and terrorism.

A total of 227 arrest warrants were issued and directed against the MS and Barrio 18 gangs as part of the operation, Salvadoran newspaper El Mundo reported. Five different clans belonging to the two gangs were targeted, it said.

The arrest warrants are associated with 90 homicides, 47 cases of extortion and four kidnappings. Three other cases involved conspiracy to commit homicide and drug trafficking.

The gangs operated in the regions of Santa Ana, La Libertad, San Vicente, Cuscatlan, Cabanas, San Miguel and Morazan, El Mundo's report said.

One-hundred people were arrested, including the 37 cited by the prosecutor and others that resulted from operations in other regions, ElSalvador.com reported. El Salvador saw a murder rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, but that figure fell to 60 per 100,000 last year, the report noted.

The MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs have some 600 clans, or subgroups, throughout El Salvador. The country's government blames the two groups for most of the violence in the Central American country.

MS 13 originated in Los Angeles in the 1970s and later spread to other parts of the world -- Central and North America and Europe, with some members operating in Italy and Spain. In the U.S., the group's largest presence outside California is in Texas, and members are also found in several eastern states from Georgia to New York.

The gang is said to have been originally created by undocumented immigrants who wanted to protect themselves from other gangs in Los Angeles. It gained strength during the 1990s after it added some troops who were trained by the United States military during the civil war in El Salvador.

U.S. deportations of Salvadorans in recent decades contributed to the strengthening in Central America. Many of the migrants leaving Central America now do so because of the widespread violence.

The USA should be helping Central American governments, including Mexico, re-take their countries from the criminals who control it. It is the best thing they can do to slow the flow of migrants. And then they should help rebuild their economies.

Honduras Sends in Troops to Quell Violent Protests over Disputed Election

Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in Honduras

© Moises Ayala / Reuters

Honduras has handed emergency powers to its army and police to quell the unrest and protests that have been wracking the country this week as votes are counted in a highly disputed and scrutinized election.

As of 11pm Friday, the government had suspended constitutional guarantees and imposed a curfew for the next 10 days, aimed at stemming the protests which have led to at least one death and 20 injuries, as well as widespread looting, following the election which took place last Sunday.

A supporter of presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla holds a bag with cookies next to burning

tires during a protest caused by the delayed vote count for the presidential election at Villanueva

neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, December 1, 2017 © Edgard Garrido / Reuters

"The suspension of constitutional guarantees was approved so that the armed forces and the national police can contain this wave of violence that has engulfed the country," government official Ebal Diaz said on national television on Friday.

The protests have been ongoing over the past few days as the opposition, suspecting electoral fraud, have demanded a recount of the vote.

Police officers and the Army guard the city after the Honduras government enforced a curfew on Saturday

while still mired in chaos over a contested presidential election that has triggered looting and protests

in Tegucigalpa, Honduras December 2, 2017 © Jorge Cabrera / Reuters

On Wednesday, all parties to the election signed a document vowing to respect the final result of the ongoing vote count. However, a few hours later the electoral tribunal claimed there had been a computer glitch, which was followed by incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez gaining the lead over his main rival, former TV host Salvador Nasralla. 

The electoral tribunal is appointed by Congress, which is in turn controlled by Hernandez’s ruling center-right National Party, leading Nasralla to declare he would refuse to acknowledge the results unless there is a full recount in three disputed regions, amounting to over 5,000 ballot boxes.

"Here in Honduras, we are in a situation of fraud against me… I won the elections with 70 percent of the vote, with 116,000 more votes than Hernandez,” Nasralla said in a Facebook post to his supporters on Friday, teleSUR reported.

“Mathematically, it is impossible that this would change even with the 30 percent of the ballots left to count."

Though Nasralla has urged his supporters to protest peacefully, demonstrators have set up roadblocks, lit bonfires, and thrown rocks and wood at police, who have responded with tear gas and water cannons. Columns of smoke from burning tires could be seen rising above the capital, Tegucigalpa, and the Public Safety Department has reported disturbances in at least eight other cities. Schools, universities and businesses have announced they would close to avoid trouble over the weekend.

"Juan Orlando is a dictator and does not want to leave," one protester told RT’s Ruptly video agency.

Honduras has long been seen as a strategic country by the United States since the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was a “banana republic” run by US corporations.

During the civil wars which plagued Central America in the 1980s, the country was used as a supply hub by the CIA – in cahoots with local drug traffickers – for the right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua. That era saw widespread extrajudicial killings and disappearances of leftists and opposition figures, and recent times have been no less turbulent. In June 2009, left-wing president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a coup, forced onboard a military plane and flown to nearby Costa Rica while still in his pajamas.

Honduras now suffers from widespread poverty as well as extreme levels of violence from warring street gangs and drug mafias. President Hernandez has been credited with lowering the homicide rate, though it remains one of the highest in the world, as well as boosting the economy. Backed by the United States, Hernandez is seen as an ally in the war on drugs. But he has also been accused of illegal fundraising and clinging on to power, while corruption and drug trafficking remain widespread.

His opponent, Salvador Nasralla, is a popular former TV host of Lebanese descent who has pledged to fight corruption. His Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship coalition includes the Liberty and Refoundation Party, or Libre, led by ex-president Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya has called for international observers to monitor the ongoing vote count to resolve the crisis.

They should have had international observers there from the beginning. Very few 3rd world leaders are willing to give up their power for the sake of fair elections.

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied, for Victims in Canada

'Failing everyone': 204 cases tossed over delays since

Supreme Court's Jordan decision

Legal observers call on governments to make drastic and urgent changes

to fix sluggish court system

By Laura Kane, The Canadian Press 

204 cases have been tossed since the Supreme Court of Canada imposed time limits for trials in the

'Jordan' ruling one year ago. (Mike dePaul/CBC)

More than 200 criminal cases across the country have been tossed due to unreasonable delays since the Supreme Court of Canada's landmark Jordan decision one year ago, court data shows.

The cases include murders, sexual assaults, drug trafficking and child luring, all stayed by judges because the defendant's constitutional right to a timely trial was infringed.

While provinces and the federal government have taken steps over the past year to speed up Canada's sluggish courts, legal observers say more drastic and urgent changes are needed.

"Not nearly enough has been done by the government in order to repair this crumbling system," said Rick Woodburn, president of the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel.

"Until the government views the justice system as a priority, we'll continue to see murderers set free."

Advocates say governments must provide more funding for every facet of the system, including judges, Crown attorneys, legal aid and infrastructure. Ottawa is also being urged to reverse decisions made under the previous Conservative government to expand mandatory minimum sentences and to close three of six RCMP forensic labs in the country.

Crown attorney Rick Woodburn says the 

government must do more to fix the 

"crumbling" court system. (CBC)

The Jordan decision, as it has come to be known, was issued on July 8, 2016, when the high court ruled the drug convictions in British Columbia of Barrett Richard Jordan must be set aside due to unreasonable delay.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court said the old means of determining whether proceedings had taken too long were inadequate. Under the new framework, unreasonable delay was to be presumed if proceedings topped 18 months in provincial court or 30 months in superior court.

1,766 applications for stays

In a dissenting opinion, a minority called the new framework unwarranted and unwise, warning it could lead to thousands of prosecutions being thrown out.

The Canadian Press requested data from all 10 provinces, three territories and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to examine the impacts to the country's justice system from the groundbreaking decision. The latest figures made available by various governments date from April 30 to June 30.

Since the ruling, approximately 1,766 applications have been filed for charges to be stayed because of unreasonable delays.

Of those, 204 have been granted and 333 have been dismissed. The remainder are either still before the courts, have been abandoned by the defence or were resolved on other grounds.

Still more charges have been proactively stayed by the Crown due to the expectation they would not survive a Jordan application, including 67 by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

Heidi Illingworth, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, said 200 cases tossed over delays was "shocking" and very painful for victims and their loved ones.

System 'failing everyone'

"The system is failing everyone. It's failing victims, it's failing accused, it's failing everyone who is working in it," she said.

"We can't have this situation where the public lacks faith in the justice system, and that's what we're starting to see happen."

Determining whether stays have increased since Jordan is challenging because most provinces did not track applications based on the previous framework for determining unreasonable delay.

Ontario reported that 65 stays were granted due to delays in the fiscal year 2015-16, meaning the number increased slightly after Jordan to 76.

Manitoba said no unreasonable-delay applications were successful between January 2015 and June 2016, but two had been granted since the Jordan ruling.

A study conducted at Dalhousie University in Halifax shows both applications and stays went up after the decision. In the six months before Jordan, 26 stays were granted out of 69 applications, while in the six months afterward, 51 stays were granted out of 101 applications.

Eric Gottardi, the Vancouver lawyer who brought Jordan's case to the Supreme Court, said the impact of the decision will not be fully known for three to five years.

The court provided transitional exceptions for cases that were already in the system before Jordan. The Crown can argue the time the case has taken is justified based on the parties' reliance on the previous law.

Public outrage 'understandable'

Gottardi said it's unacceptable for a serious case to get to the point where a judge thinks it must be tossed, and the outrage felt by victims, families and the public is completely understandable.

"The focus of the anger should be towards the government, in my view, not towards the courts," he said. "There's myriad reasons why it got to that point, and most of them have to do with infrastructure and funding."

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said there are a number of solutions to delays and she expects to introduce reforms in the fall. She also said her government remains committed to reviewing mandatory minimum sentences.

Despite a raft of new appointments, there are still 49 vacancies of federally appointed judges across the country, and more than a dozen vacancies of provincially appointed judges.

Bill Trudell, chairman of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, said the Jordan decision has sent an "electric shock" through the justice system.

He said he thought the decision went too far, but it has been a catalyst for positive change.

"It's like a protest. Good things may come from protests, even though you might not like the protest at the time."

Provinces have brought in new procedures to speed up the justice system. Here's a look at some of the initiatives provinces have undertaken:

Quebec

Quebec is investing $175-million over four years to recruit new judges, prosecutors, legal aid lawyers and support staff and create new courtrooms. So far, 449 positions have been filled and several new hearing rooms are operational. Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee recently announced an additional $9 million to hire 47 legal aid workers. The province has also launched a pilot program to allow for alternatives to incarceration, such as community service, in some minor offences.

Quebec Minister of Justice and Attorney General Stéphanie Vallée wants the government to create eight new Superior Court justice positions and two additional Appeal Court judge positions. (Justin Tan/Canadian Press)

Vallee is also calling on the federal government to create eight new Superior Court justice positions and two additional Appeal Court judge positions, but Ottawa has not done so yet.

Ontario

Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said in an interview the Jordan decision is a "game-changer" and a call to action for all levels of government. He said the province has added 13 judges, 32 assistant Crown attorneys and a number of other staff.

Ontario has also focused on streamlining the front-end of the system with a number of initiatives aimed at better serving individuals with mental health issues, addictions and unstable housing. It has expanded provincewide a program that facilitates the release of low-risk accused into the community pending trial, as well as launched a new "bail beds" program that provides supervised housing for vulnerable accused. It has also developed a program to provide supports to Indigenous people who are accused of a crime.

British Columbia

B.C.'s Supreme Court recently issued new directions for so-called "mega-trials," or large or complex criminal cases that have the potential to occupy a significant amount of court time or risk delays. The directions call for a case management judge to be appointed early in the process and for tight time limits for disclosure, pre-trial applications and the trial itself.

Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen said in an interview the court began reviewing complex trial procedures about 18 months before the Jordan decision. But he said the ruling helped "spur us on and made us realize that we're doing something useful."

B.C.'s government tasked lawyer Geoffrey Cowper in 2012 with writing a report on its justice system, in which he identified a "culture of delay." In November 2016, Cowper said B.C. was on the road to recovery. A major initiative he cited was B.C.'s use of administrative law to move tens of thousands of drunk-driving charges out of provincial court.

Nova Scotia

Chris Hansen, with Nova Scotia's Public Prosecution Service, said the province is being "fairly aggressive" in dealing with Jordan. It has established a criminal justice transformation group with the sole purpose of addressing delays. Every criminal case has a "Jordan ticker," so that when participants access material online, they can clearly see the number of months since the information was laid. Hansen also said the courts have increased their use of technology with video conferencing and electronic disclosure.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan's Public Prosecutions said most cases in the province finish within the time limit and exceptional events are often the cause in the small number of cases that don't. Nonetheless, it said it's implementing further strategies to move every case along as quickly as possible. These include focusing on expediting disclosure, assessing cases as early as is workable, removing cases that do not meet the prosecution standard, and working to resolve cases as soon as possible.

With files from Brett Bundale, Sidhartha Banerjee, Joanna Smith, Allison Jones, Lauren Krugel and Geordon Omand