Tag Archives: Riot

Mexico teacher protests buffet ruling party, eight killed in clashes

Protesting violence

By Lizbeth Diaz and Natalie Schachar

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – At least eight people were killed in clashes in southern Mexico over the weekend when police and members of a teachers’ union faced off in violent confrontations, a senior state official said, piling fresh pressure on the country’s embattled ruling party.

Violence erupted on Sunday when police dislodged protesters blocking a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca, a hotbed of dissent from radical teachers’ groups opposed to education reforms pushed through by the government three years ago.

Speaking on local radio early on Monday, Jorge Ruiz, Oaxaca’s state secretary for public safety, said eight people died in two separate confrontations, raising the death toll in the clashes from a previous tally of six.

He said six people died near the town of Nochixtlan, about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the city of Oaxaca, while two others were killed in related protests in Juchitan, in the southeast of Oaxaca state.

The violence is the latest in a series of setbacks to President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government, which has faced widespread criticism for its failures to crack down on graft and impunity, contain drug gang violence or jumpstart the economy.

It also deals a fresh blow to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), still smarting from a drubbing in regional elections earlier this month which put it on the back foot in the run-up to the next presidential election in 2018.

The violence has tarnished the reputations of two of the party’s leading contenders for the 2018 ticket: Education Minister Aurelio Nuno and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, whose brief includes domestic security.

Rocio Nahle, the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party’s parliamentary coordinator, said Nuno should resign over the violence, but blamed Osorio Chong as well.

“Pena Nieto will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in terms of violating human rights,” she told Reuters.

‘INSUFFICIENT’ ACCOUNTABILITY

The violence came as Christof Heyns, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on Monday that police accountability in Mexico was insufficient.

“Extrajudicial executions and excessive use of force by security agents persist,” Heyns said in a U.N. report.

The unrest has escalated since police arrested the leader of the local teachers’ union earlier this month. Ruben Nunez, head of one of the most combative factions of Mexico’s CNTE union, Oaxaca’s Section 22, was detained on suspicion of money laundering.

The CNTE has led efforts to resist federal education reforms, particularly its mandate to carry out teacher evaluations. Miguel Zurita, a CNTE representative in Oaxaca, said that when police arrived to dislodge Sunday’s protest near Nochixtlan, they were unwilling to enter into a dialogue.

“What we lived through yesterday was something brutal, something that has no name,” he said. “They arrived armed and they arrived shooting.”

The Mexican government, however, defended its handling of the protests.

In a statement, the National Security Commission denied federal forces had used firearms against protesters, saying images circulating online of police with rifles were faked.

Enrique Galindo, the head of Mexico’s federal police, said masked individuals who were not affiliated to the teachers’ union were behind much of the violence, lobbing Molotov cocktails and shooting at police and civilians.

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel and Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay; editing by Simon Gardner and G Crosse)

Boko Haram shoot dead 18 women at funeral in northern Nigeria

YOLA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Boko Haram militants have shot dead 18 women at a funeral in Nigeria’s northeast, rampaging through a village, setting houses on fire and shooting at random, witnesses and local government officials said on Friday.

The attack took place at about 5 p.m. (12 p.m. ET) on Thursday in the village of Kuda in Adamawa State. Resident Moses Kwagh told Reuters that people waited until three hours after the attack and had then counted 18 women’s bodies.

Some women were still missing, he said.

A police source confirmed the attack but said it was not yet clear how many people had been killed. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

State lawmaker Emmanuel Tsamdu told Reuters: “I am yet to get the details on how it happened and the real number of people killed. I have sent hunters to go to the area and get me the details because people are afraid to go to the village.”

Kuda is close to the Sambisa Forest, a vast colonial-era game reserve where Boko Haram militants hide in secluded camps to avoid the Nigerian military. The village was attacked by Boko Haram militants in February.

Under President Muhammadu Buhari’s command and aided by Nigeria’s neighbors, the army has recaptured most of the territory seized by Boko Haram, but the group still regularly stages guerrilla attacks.

“When we said that Boko Haram is still in this place some people sit in Abuja and claim that there is no more Boko Haram, but see what has happen,” Kwagh said.

(Reporting by Emma Ande; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Zambia police arrest four suspects for ritual murders that sparked riots

Zambia ritual murders

LUSAKA (Reuters) – Zambia police said on Tuesday four suspects have been arrested in connection with a string of grisly ritual murders in the southern African nation’s capital that triggered anti-foreign riots targeting mostly Rwandan migrants in April.

The arrested suspects are two army soldiers, a civilian employee of the Zambian Air Force and a traditional doctor, police said. They were to appear in court Tuesday afternoon charged with seven counts of murder.

“All the murders which the accused have been charged with were committed in a similar manner by crushing the left side of the head, removing body parts and later dumping the deceased near their homes,” police said in a statement.

Police said in April that the victims had ears, hearts and genitals removed, raising suspicion of ritual killings.

Human body parts are sometimes used in traditional remedies and concoctions in southern Africa. The practice is linked to witchcraft beliefs.

Zambia hosts thousands of refugees from neighboring countries, especially Rwanda and Burundi, but relations between the communities are usually peaceful.

(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by James Macharia)

Grand Jury Formally Indicts Baltimore Officers

A grand jury in Baltimore has indicted six officers on charges connected to the Freddie Gray situation that led to massive rioting.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced the grand jury’s decision to bring charges against all the officers during a Thursday press conference.  The indictments were similar to charges Mosby announced earlier this month but a few changed due to what she called “new information in the case.”

“These past two weeks, my team has been presenting evidence to a grand jury that just today returned indictments against all six officers,” Mosby told reporters. “As our investigation has continued, additional information has been discovered, and as is often the case during an ongoing investigation, charges can and should be revised based upon the evidence.”

The officers will be formally charged on July 2nd.

The Washington Post reports that Gray had an extensive criminal record “and had a handful of convictions, mostly on charges of selling or possessing heroin or marijuana. His longest stint behind bars was about two years.”

Gray’s death sparked nationwide protests and calls for the officers to be charged with murder.

Rioters Attack Baltimore Police

Violent black youths stormed out of a funeral for Freddie Gray, the man who died while in Baltimore police custody, and launched a series of violent attacks on police.

The attacks involved throwing rocks and bricks at officers and setting several police vehicles on fire.

Police spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said that seven officers were injured as a result of attacks from protesters including one who is unresponsive and in critical condition.  Several of the wounded officers are suffering from broken bones due to the projectiles thrown at them.

WMAR Baltimore is reporting that many of the rioters appear to be youths between 14 and 18 years old.  Religious leaders in the region are calling on their followers to find out where their children are and to take them home, especially if they are part of the protests.

Rev. Jamal H. Bryant, who delivered the eulogy for Gray, told CNN that the city was in a “code red crisis.”  He said that men from the Nation of Islam are planning to build a “human wall” to stop the bomb from coming downtown in an attempt to stem the violence.

City Council President Jack Young posted on Facebook pleading with the community to stop their actions.

“The World is watching us to see if we do what took place in 1968,” he said, referring to riots that crippled the city. “We literally destroyed our neighborhood and business. We never really recovered from that.”

Downtown businesses closed early and evacuated their staff after reports indicated the rioters were attempting to head downtown with their violence.

A CVS Pharmacy on W. North Avenue was overrun by protesters who completely looted and destroyed the store.  WMAR-TV showed men sitting in the street going through bags of prescription drugs and a van that was loaded with stolen personal hygiene products.

The family of Freddie Gray had asked at the funeral for no protests following the service.