Tag Archives: Violence

Sweden intensifies crackdown on illegal immigrants

A general view of the migration agency detention center in Marsta, Sweden, June 20, 2017. Picture taken June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Johan Ahlander

By Johan Ahlander and Mansoor Yosufzai

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden has intensified its crackdown on illegal immigrants after a failed asylum-seeker killed five people in Stockholm, but the move has raised concerns that more migrants will be driven underground to join a shadowy underclass.

In the past months, police have staged wider sweeps on workplaces to check papers, netting undocumented workers, sending a warning to employers and sparking heated debate in a nation that has been traditionally tolerant to migrants.

In May, police carried out their biggest raid so far when dozens of officers swooped on a constructions site in Stockholm. Nine were caught and sent to detention centers, while another 40 escaped by scrambling onto scaffolding and across roof tops.

Swedish authorities had already started to tighten up on illegal immigrants, but police stepped up their activities after Uzbek construction worker Rakhmat Akilov drove into Stockholm shoppers in April.

“We have an unlimited amount of work,” said Jerk Wiberg, who leads the Stockholm police unit in charge of domestic border controls. A 22-year veteran who has caught thousands of illegal immigrants, Wiberg led the raid at the construction site in May.

After Akilov became another militant in Europe to use a truck as a weapon, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven made it clear that “no means no” for those whose asylum bids are rejected. Akilov, whose lawyer said he had admitted to committing the crime, had been in hiding after his asylum request was denied.

The Migration Agency estimated 10,000 asylum-seekers a year will choose to disappear rather than be deported. Up to 50,000 undocumented immigrants already work in hotels, transport, construction and restaurants, the agency said last year.

Migration Minister Morgan Johansson said that a “dual labor market … where a growing group lives on the outside of society and remains in Sweden” after having been denied residency was unacceptable.

“It also increases the risk of them being exploited. We cannot have it that way,” he said, adding: “One way is to go after the employers … (using) expanded workplace checks.”

While cheap migrant labor is welcomed by some small businesses, government officials and economists worry that the shadow economy undercuts Sweden’s economic model, whose generous welfare provisions and high wages are built on high rates of productivity and one of the world’s heaviest tax regimes.

ANTI-IMMIGRANT PARTY

Tough measures against immigrants go against the grain for many in Sweden, a country of 10 million which once called itself “a humanitarian superpower” that generously welcomed migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Africa.

But attitudes appear to be changing and a 2017 study by Gothenburg University showed 52 percent favored taking fewer refugees into the country with 24 percent opposed. Two years ago 40 percent backed reducing refugee numbers with 37 opposed.

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats are now the second biggest party in polls with support of around a fifth of Swedes.

The Social Democrats, the country’s biggest party in every election since 1917 and leader of the governing coalition with the Greens, has been forced to balance its traditional left-wing credentials with the need to enforce immigration laws.

Despite political support for the crackdown and tougher rules on immigration, police struggle to enforce deportations. Between January and April police deported just under 600 people, a third fewer than in the same period last year.

Some of those caught were freed because detention centers were full, while others cannot be deported as they don’t have passports to prove their country of origin or their home countries refuse to take them.

The government never discloses how many are held in detention centers, saying there are about 360 beds and deportees are normally repatriated within three weeks. The government has told the migration agency to add another 100 beds.

An extra 800 million crowns ($95 million) has been added to the police budget this year to bolster the clampdown, but senior officers say this is not enough.

WIDENING THE NET

In 2016, police made about 1,100 unannounced workplace checks, almost three times more than in 2015, and caught 232 illegal immigrants. A further increase is expected in 2017 as the net widens. Illegal immigrants are also detained through checks at transport hubs, on vehicles or after committing crime.

Deportations made up a small fraction of the 20,000 rejected asylum seekers who left Sweden last year.

“We have been able to increase the number of people who leave Sweden substantially. But we’re listening to the police and we have paved the way for more resources and wider powers,” Johansson said in an interview, adding:

“We will have to increase that number further.”

Expanded police powers include workplace checks without concrete suspicion of a crime, to be allowed from next year, with sharply higher fines for employing illegal immigrants.

Immigrants themselves have been unnerved. When police burst into a pizzeria in the southern city of Malmo where Ehsanulla Kajfar, a 38-year-old Afghan refugee, was working in May he said he thought they were looking for “terrorists or drug dealers”.

He was surprised to be handcuffed and placed in the back seat of a police vehicle as tax officials scrutinized the restaurant’s employee ledger. He was told his papers were not in order and was taken to a detention center.

“Sweden used to be a nice country, even when I was living underground,” he told Reuters. “Now although I have a residence permit from Italy and I am registered at the tax agency in Sweden, I’m still locked in a detention center.”

IMMIGRANTS FEARFUL

Nicaraguan Hugo Eduardo Somarriba Quintero, 37, said he was wrongly detained in the big raid in Stockholm in May due to an error by authorities and then released. Migration Agency records confirmed the details of his case.

“But I’ve lost my job – the company where I was working was dropped from the construction site (because of irregularities in not checking work papers properly). Now I am looking for work and there is no job for me,” he tearfully told Reuters, adding:

“Before there was a lot of tolerance for migrants. Now the laws are harder.”

Muhammad, a 22-year old Afghan who declined to give his family name, has been in hiding for three years in Malmo since his asylum application was rejected.

He has moved three times this year and never stays in a place longer than three months. All his belongings are packed in a suitcase and two plastic bags if he needs to leave in a hurry.

Muhammad relies on food stamps from the church and leftover food from restaurants and grocery stores.

He has learned to avoid the city center when there is an increase in policing and gets help from other immigrants and volunteers who work for asylum-seekers’ rights. They warn each other of police checks and raids through text messages.

“Last time the police made a push to find immigrants, my friend stayed inside for 15 to 20 days,” Muhammad said. “But I can’t stay inside all the time, its too depressing.”

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Mansoor Yosufzai, additional reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Peter Millership)

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank clash: medical officials

Palestinian mourners attends the funeral of Saad Salah and Aws Salameh in the West Bank city of Jenin, July 12, 2017. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed two Palestinians on Wednesday in a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medical officials said, and the Israeli military said its troops had opened fire after coming under attack.

The incident took place before dawn in Jenin refugee camp, and no Israeli casualties were reported.

Israeli forces often carry out searches in the West Bank for suspected militants and weapons manufacturing facilities. .

“During an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) operation in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the forces and assailants hurled explosive devices at the forces,” the military said in a statement.

“In response to the immediate threat, forces shot towards the attackers.”

The Palestinian health ministry said the two Palestinians killed by the troops were aged 21 and 16, and that a third person was shot and wounded in the leg.

Camp residents made no mention of any Palestinian gunfire in their accounts of the raid in which they said rocks were thrown at the troops.

Mohammed Sadee, who lives in the camp, said he witnessed one of the Palestinians being shot.

“The military jeeps were driving in and this martyr was behind them on a motorbike. They shot him … and he fell to the ground,” he said.

(Reporting by Ali Samoudi in Jenin and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Black Lives Matter leaders sued over Baton Rouge police shooting

An East Baton Rouge Sheriff vehicle is seen with bullet holes in its windows near the scene where police officers were shot, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. July 17, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

(Reuters) – A police officer wounded in a shooting rampage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last year that left three officers dead sued Black Lives Matter movement leaders on Friday, accusing them of inciting violence that spurred the attack.

The lawsuit filed in a U.S. district court in Louisiana named DeRay McKesson and four other Black Lives Matter leaders as defendants and sought at least $75,000 in damages.

It came on the one-year anniversary of one of the deadliest days in modern U.S. history for law enforcement. On July 7, 2016, a black man angered by what he saw as deadly racial bias in U.S. policing launched a downtown Dallas sniper attack, killing five officers deployed at a protest decrying police shootings of black men.

McKesson was not immediately available for comment and Black Lives Matter leaders have denied accusations that their movement promotes violence against police.

About 10 days after the Dallas shooting, a decorated ex-U.S. Marine sergeant opened fire on police in Baton Rouge, killing three officers.

Baton Rouge had been hit by waves of protests after two police officers earlier that month killed a black man, Alton Sterling, under questionable circumstances. The incident was caught on video and sparked national debate.

The officer wounded in Baton Rouge, who was not named in the lawsuit, was shot by “a person violently protesting against police, and which violence was caused or contributed to by the leaders of and by ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’,” the filing said.

Gavin Long, the black gunman who killed the Baton Rouge officers and was later shot dead, identified himself as a member of an African-American offshoot of the anti-government, mostly white Sovereign Citizen Movement, documents showed.

Last year, McKesson and two other activists sued the Baton Rouge police department and other officials over the arrests of nearly 200 demonstrators during mostly peaceful protests over police killings.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas and Bryn Stole in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Editing by Andrew Hay)

At least 23 Egyptian soldiers killed in deadliest Sinai attack in years

By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Yusri Mohamed

CAIRO/ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – At least 23 Egyptian soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs tore through two military checkpoints in North Sinai on Friday, security sources said, an attack claimed by Islamic State that marks one of the bloodiest assaults on security forces in years.

Islamic State militants are waging an insurgency in the rugged, thinly populated Sinai Peninsula. They have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since 2013, when the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi after mass protests against his rule.

The two cars blew up at two checkpoints outside of a military compound just south of Rafah, on the border with the Gaza Strip, the security sources said.

In a statement Islamic State said its fighters targeted the compound because the military was preparing to launch operations against the Sunni Muslim militant group from there.

The security sources said another 26 soldiers were injured in Friday’s attacks. The military put the casualties lower, saying the attacks had killed and injured a total of 26 soldiers, without providing a breakdown of the figure.

The attack is the most severe in Sinai since at least July 2015, when Islamic State militants assaulted simultaneously a slew of checkpoints and military sites around North Sinai. At least 17 soldiers were killed, according to an official tally.

Friday’s bombings present a challenge for general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who describes Islamist militancy as an existential threat and himself as a bulwark against extremism in a region beset by violence and war.

COUNTER-STRIKE

Security sources described Friday’s attack as a coordinated strike, with car bombs blowing apart checkpoints as gunmen in four-wheel drive vehicles shot down soldiers running for cover.

Militants in armored vehicles meanwhile fired rocket propelled grenades at a military site just beyond the checkpoint, the sources said.

The military carried out a counter-attack almost immediately after, deploying fighter jets to kill over 40 militants suspected of involvement and destroying six of their vehicles, according to a video released by the military showing aerial footage of air strikes.

The military posted photos of five dead militants in blood-soaked fatigues lying in the sand. It did not name their affiliation.

“Law enforcement forces in North Sinai succeeded in thwarting a terrorist attack on some checkpoints south of Rafah,” a military statement said.

The bloody assault comes as militant attacks have increasingly shifted beyond the Sinai deep into Egypt’s heartland, often targeting minority Coptic Christians.

Separately on Friday, a homeland security officer was shot dead outside his home in Qalubiya, a province just north of Cairo, while on his way to Friday prayers, an Interior Ministry statement said.

That attack was later claimed by the Hasam Movement, a militant group that has claimed several attacks around Cairo targeting judges and policemen since last year.

Responding to the Sinai attack, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail stressed the need for countries to unite against those who support terrorism and to “dry up their sources of funding,” an allusion to Qatar.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain broke diplomatic relations with Qatar last month and are now boycotting the Gulf Arab state, which they accuse of supporting terrorism and allying with regional foe Iran. Qatar denies this.

(Reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, Ali Abdelaty, and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Larry King and Chris Reese)

Hamburg police fear further violence on final day of G20 summit

German riot police officers walk in front of protesters during demonstrations at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

By Joseph Nasr

HAMBURG (Reuters) – German police braced for a third day of violent clashes with anti-capitalist protesters bent on disrupting the G20 summit of global leaders in Hamburg port, after radicals torched cars, smashed shops and injured officers overnight.

While around 100,000 protestors have staged peaceful marches since Thursday, a hard core of the Black Bloc militants from across Europe have looted stores, set fire to street barricades and hurled bottles and paving slabs.

The head of Hamburg police said he was shocked by the “wave of destructive anger”, riots and arson committed by demonstrators since Thursday.

“We have clear indications it is highly likely that these violent perpetrators will mix in with today’s demonstration ‘G20 – not welcome!’ said Ralf Martin Meyer. “It is to be expected that again, no peaceful protest will be possible.”

The anti-globalisation Attac movement plans a demonstration of up to 100,000 people on the final day of the summit. Police said some 21,000 people had already gathered.

“Today we will bring our criticism of the G20 and our alternatives for fair global policies onto the streets,” said Attac’s Thomas Eberhardt-Koester.

“We want to respond to the police violence and senseless destruction of last night,” he added.

In the last three days, more than 200 police officers have been injured. Some 143 people have been arrested and 122 taken into custody. The number of injured protestors was not available. On Friday night, special armed police had been deployed with sub-machine guns.

World leaders and officials are putting the final touches to a joint statement on issues ranging from trade to climate change on Saturday, the final day of the summit.

Merkel had wanted to show her commitment to free speech by hosting G20 leaders in Hamburg, a port city with a strong radical tradition, but images of burning cars and shops and streets awash with debris have raised questions about that strategy.

Hamburg residents inspected the destruction on Saturday and said they were angry the summit was taking place there.

“Merkel underestimated the protests. The least she can do now is come visit (the district of) Sternschanze and see the damage for herself,” said Kai Mertens, a 50-year-old programmer.

“We are a very liberal district. But what they did here has nothing to do with the G20 or opposition to politics. They were hooligans and many were foreigners,” added Mertens.

Police from across Germany have been brought to Hamburg to reinforce the local force. A 27-year old German suspected of attempted murder after pointing a laser pointer at a police helicopter was due to face a judge on Saturday, said police.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Venezuelan lawmakers beaten, besieged in latest violence

Government supporter promoting violence

By Silene Ramírez and Carlos Garcia Rawlins

CARACAS (Reuters) – Pipe-wielding government supporters burst into Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest flare-up of violence during a political crisis.

The melee, which injured seven opposition politicians, was another worrying flashpoint in a traumatic last three months for the South American OPEC nation, shaken by opposition protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

At least 90 people have died in the unrest, with fighting and barricades frequently blocking cities across Venezuela.

National Assembly president Julio Borges said more than 350 politicians, journalists and guests to the Independence Day session were trapped in the siege that lasted until dusk.

“There are bullets, cars destroyed including mine, blood stains around the (congress) palace,” he told reporters. “The violence in Venezuela has a name and surname: Nicolas Maduro.”

The crowd had gathered just after dawn outside the building in downtown Caracas, chanting in favor of Maduro, witnesses said. In the late morning, several dozen people ran past the gates with pipes, sticks and stones and went on the attack.

Several injured lawmakers stumbled bloodied and dazed around the assembly’s corridors. Some journalists were robbed.

After the morning attack, a crowd of roughly 100 people, many dressed in red and shouting “Long Live The Revolution!”, trapped people inside for hours, witnesses said.

Some in the crowd outside the legislature brandished pistols, threatened to cut water and power supplies, and played an audio of former socialist president Hugo Chavez saying “Tremble, oligarchy!” Fireworks were thrown inside.

The worst-hurt lawmaker, Americo De Grazia, was hit on the head, fell unconscious, and was eventually taken by stretcher to an ambulance. His family later said he was out of critical condition and being stitched up.

Downtown Caracas is a traditional stronghold neighborhood for the government and there has been a string of clashes there since the opposition thrashed the ruling Socialist Party in December 2015 parliamentary elections.

In a speech during a military parade for Independence Day, Maduro condemned the “strange” violence in the assembly and asked for an investigation. But he also challenged the opposition to speak out about violence from within its ranks.

In daily protests since April, young demonstrators have frequently attacked security forces with stones, homemade mortars and Molotov cocktails, and burned property. They killed one man by dousing him in gasoline and setting him on fire.

“I want peace for Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I don’t accept violence from anyone.”

FOREIGN CONDEMNATION

Numerous foreign nations repudiated Wednesday’s events.

“I condemn the grotesque attack on the Venezuelan assembly,” tweeted UK ambassador John Saville.

“This violence, perpetrated during the celebration of Venezuela’s independence, is an assault on the democratic principles cherished by the men and women who struggled for Venezuela’s independence 206 years ago today,” the U.S. State Department said.

Venezuela’s opposition is demanding general elections to end socialist rule and solutions to the OPEC nation’s brutal economic crisis. The government says its foes are seeking a violent coup with U.S. support.

Earlier, a Venezuelan police officer who staged a helicopter attack on government buildings in Caracas last week appeared in an internet video vowing to continue fighting.

“Once again we are in Caracas, ready and willing to continue our struggle for the liberation of our country,” police pilot Oscar Perez said in the video, wearing a military uniform and wool cap, with a Venezuelan flag and rifle behind him.

Perez had not been seen since he hijacked a helicopter last week and flew through Caracas pulling a “Freedom” banner. He opened fire and dropped grenades on the Interior Ministry and Supreme Court but nobody was injured.

Maduro, 54, the successor to Hugo Chavez, called that attack a terrorist assault to overthrow him and lambasted Western nations for not condemning it.

But many government critics doubt the official version, and some even suggested it may have been staged to divert attention from the country’s economic and political crises.

In the video, Perez said the attack was “perfectly achieved” with no collateral damage “because it was planned, because we are not murderers like you, Mr. Nicolas Maduro.”

Perez said he had staged an emergency landing on the Caribbean coast following the attack, and returned to the capital after hiking through mountains. The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Perez, who has portrayed himself as a James Bond-cum-Rambo figure on social media, also is an actor who starred in a 2015 movie about the rescue of a kidnapped businessman.

Although he has claimed wider support within the security forces, Perez’s actions so far appear to be a rogue stunt organized by a small group of disaffected policemen.

Venezuela’s opposition says Maduro is seeking to consolidate control through a Constituent Assembly, a superbody that will be elected at the end of July. The opposition has promised to boycott the vote, which it says is rigged in favor of the ruling Socialist Party.

Before the attack on them, opposition lawmakers held a session denouncing the president as a “dictator” and approving a plebiscite that the opposition is organizing for July 16, asking Venezuelans what they think of Maduro’s plans.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore, Brian Ellsworth and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas, Eric Beech in Washington; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay)

China-bound flight returns to Seattle after passenger assaults crew member

By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A Delta Air Lines flight bound for Beijing returned to Seattle on Thursday after a passenger assaulted a flight attendant in the first-class cabin before being subdued by other travelers, a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport spokesman said.

The flight attendant and a passenger were sent to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening after the Boeing 767-300 landed safely shortly after 7 p.m., airport spokesman Perry Cooper said.

A 23-year-old male passenger, from Florida, was arrested by Port of Seattle police on suspicion of assaulting a member of the flight crew and was transferred to federal detention, a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said by e-mail.

Delta flight 129 departed Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at around 5:30 p.m., but headed back to Seattle roughly 45 minutes into the flight, Cooper said.

Cooper said the man assaulted a flight attendant in the first-class cabin, but said he had no further details about the incident.

The FBI, which was assisting local police with the investigation, interviewed passengers and had no information to suggest the incident was a threat to national security, said Ayn Dietrich, an agency spokeswoman.

The suspect was due to make to an initial appearance in federal court in Seattle on Friday afternoon, Dietrich said.

Cooper said multiple passengers intervened to help subdue the suspect during the in-flight disturbance. The pilot decided to turn back and call for police, fire, and medical personnel to meet the plane.

Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said there was no security breach at the airport, south of Seattle.

Delta spokeswoman Liz Savadelis said by e-mail that the passenger was restrained onboard and then removed from the flight by law enforcement without further incident after the plane landed in Seattle.

The flight was scheduled to re-depart for Beijing later in the evening, Savadelis said.

Media reports that the plane was escorted back to Seattle by military jets were inaccurate, she added.

The Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)

At least 28 killed in bloody Mexican prison fight

Riot police enter a prison after a riot broke out at the maximum security wing in Acapulco, Mexico, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Troy Merida

By Uriel Sanchez

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) – At least 28 inmates were killed when a brutal fight broke out in a prison in the Mexican Pacific resort of Acapulco on Thursday, one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the country’s troubled penal system in recent years.

Acapulco is the biggest city in Guerrero, one of Mexico’s most lawless states and a center of opium poppy production that has been a major concern to U.S. officials.

The prison carnage was particularly embarrassing to Mexico as it came the same day U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was visiting Guerrero, in Mexico’s southwest.

Guerrero state security official Roberto Alvarez told reporters the fight broke out between rival gangs in the maximum-security wing of the prison. In addition to 28 dead, three people were injured, he said.

Authorities found bodies throughout the wing, inside and outside the kitchen, as well as the area for conjugal visits, he said. A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters four of the dead were decapitated.

Alvarez told Reuters the prison was close to 30 percent over capacity. It was built for 1,624 inmates but had 1,951 men and 110 women behind its walls, he said.

Despite reports of gunfire in the prison, all the casualties were due to wounds from sharp instruments, such as the improvised weapons that are fashioned by inmates, Alvarez said.

Violent crime in Mexico has jumped in recent months and 2017 is on track to be one of its bloodiest on record.

The number of murder cases in the first five months of 2017 jumped nearly 30 percent and murder investigations hit a record high in May.

Drug gangs have been battling for control amid a power vacuum following the January deportation of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States.

The United States and Mexico are discussing how to crack down on the cartels now that most of the established capos have been killed or captured in a decade-long, military-led campaign.

Kelly, one of the main links between Mexico’s government and the Trump administration on migration and security cooperation, arrived in Mexico on Wednesday and has held meetings with other top officials, including President Enrique Pena Nieto.

He visited a military base outside Acapulco on Thursday to meet Mexico’s army and navy chiefs.

Kelly discussed the military’s efforts to battle drug traffickers and observed the deployment of troops to destroy opium poppy fields, the defense ministry said in a statement.

Acapulco, one of Mexico’s most famous beach resorts, was once a playground for Hollywood stars but in recent years has been roiled by vicious gang warfare. It is now ranked one of the most murderous cities in the world.

The past week has been particularly bloody in Mexico.

On Wednesday, at least 14 people were killed in a shootout in the northern state of Chihuahua, while 17 suspected gang members were shot dead by police late on Friday near Mazatlan in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.

Thursday’s fight is the worst outbreak of violence inside a Mexican prison since 49 people died early last year in a battle between members of the feared Zetas drug cartel and rivals at a prison in the northern industrial city of Monterrey.

(Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Gabriel Stargardter and Dave Graham; Editing by Sandra Maler, Bill Trott and Paul Tait)

‘The Venezuelan factor,’ entrepreneurs adapt to nation in crisis

Chef Carlos Garcia (L) cooks within the kitchen of the Alto restaurant in Caracas, Venezuela June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

By Andreina Aponte and Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS (Reuters) – Unfazed by Venezuela’s political unrest, devastated economy and ranking as one of the world’s worst places to do business, two years ago Johel Fernandez started making sweatshirts emblazoned with icons of Caracas for online customers overseas.

Fernandez, 22, is part of a small group of young business people finding opportunities in Venezuela’s crisis, building companies in their neighborhoods at a time when many peers are seeking their fortunes abroad.

“Right now there is a movement of entrepreneurs who have decided ‘we are not going anywhere.’ Venezuela will always be our center of operations,” said Fernandez, who markets his products with the slogan “Made with love in Caracas.”

Working out of a cramped basement workshop, Fernandez’s company Simple Clothing is tiny, selling a few dozen articles a month to the United States, Spain and Britain. But the foreign currency earned goes a long way in a country where many professionals make less than $40 a month.

Triple digit inflation, a recession the central bank says shrank the economy almost a fifth last year and chronic shortages mean socialist-run Venezuela is not the first place that springs to mind to start a company.

The World Bank lists it the fourth-hardest place to do business among 190 countries, ranked between Libya and war-ravaged South Sudan. It takes an average of 230 days to open a Venezuelan business, and just six in neighboring Colombia.

Fernandez’s designs of the capital’s metro map, its shanty towns and the country’s favorite candy brands are popular among the growing diaspora of Venezuelans. He has opened his production to other designers to help them earn hard currency and ride out the recession.

Like other young businessmen he sees running a business as a way of helping Venezuela survive its current decline.

There are even some upsides in the topsy-turvy economy.

Simple Clothing’s individualized export business is viable in part because distortions created by multiple currency and price controls make the cost of sending a package abroad much lower than in nearby countries .

“Shipping from Venezuela is currently super cheap, and it is something we can offer our clients,” said Fernandez. “We can send it at no extra cost to them.”

For example, to send a small package to Spain from Venezuela by Fedex costs just $1.50 at Venezuela’s widely used black market rate.

It would cost $56 to send the same package from Mexico, more than the $36 Fernandez sells his sweatshirts for. In bolivars, his clothes are unaffordable for most Venezuelans at home.

Fifteen seamstresses work by contract for specific orders, giving the company flexibility to adapt to occasional scarcity of the right cloth, as well as riots that force them to shutter up several times a week. The flexible hours also give workers time to scour supermarkets for food.

What Fernandez calls “the Venezuelan factor” means orders are occasionally late.

One of the couriers Fernandez uses, DHL, in June postponed flights to and from Venezuela indefinitely. DHL did not give a reason, but several airlines have stopped flying to Venezuela because they are unable to repatriate earnings.

LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES

Despite the challenges, Wayra, a startup accelerator run by Spain’s Telefonica, has helped set up 45 tech-oriented companies in Venezuela over five years.

Thirty five are still in business, including MundoSinCola, an app that helps save time in Venezuela’s infamous lines at banks and government offices.

Wayra’s director in Venezuela Gustavo Reyes estimated there were now 20 startups a year in Venezuela, and with better conditions there could be 10 times that.

Startup Weekend, an organization that runs boot camps for entrepreneurs, held six events in four cities in Venezuela last year but has postponed this year because of the crisis.

Ideas at Startup Weekend last year included a mobile application to tell you which supermarkets contained scarce products, said Karina Taboelle, a speaker at the events.

“The crisis has had a positive side in that it has pushed people to look for alternatives, to find solutions focused on the situation in the country,” she said.

“OUT INTO THE STREET”

To weather shortages, chef Carlos Garcia, who trained at Spain’s legendary El Bulli restaurant, travels deep into Venezuela for supplies for his eatery, Alto, the only Venezuelan business on the coveted 50 Best Latin American restaurants list.

“I used to pick up the phone and the things arrived,” Garcia said at a recent lunchtime. “The crisis made us go out into the street and work directly with producers.”

Now, Alto buys produce from an urban farm in Caracas, from the Andean state of Merida and the tropical hills of Carora. His meat comes from the Orinoco Delta region of Monagas.

“Only the olive oil and some sugars are imported,” Garcia said as waiters served meticulously placed vegetables and local staples such as black beans blended into a delicately spiced soup.

A degustation menu, in which patrons sample various foods, costs 35,000 bolivars, or about $4 at the black market rate.

Critics find it offensive that Caracas’ high-end restaurants are bustling at a time when it is common to see families looking though garbage for food and malnutrition has soared.

Garcia says the restaurant gives work to 32 people, who are fed twice a day. He points to a giant pot bubbling in the kitchen, cooking a soup that will feed 250 children at a local hospital.

Like Fernandez, he sees building a business at a time of crisis as patriotic, calling it an act of “resistance.”

The wave of anti-government protests that began in early April have taken their toll on his business located in an area that often sees clashes between protesters and police. Teargas sometimes drifts between cocoa plants in the restaurant garden.

“There will be no profits this year, the goal is to break even,” he said.

“Some mornings I wake up full of hope and belief that this will work out, but today for example I woke up saying, ‘I’m not sure if we’ll make it.'”

(Editing by Brian Ellsworth and Andrew Hay)

More than 100 shot in Chicago during long Fourth of July weekend

FILE PHOTO: Some of the guns seized over the last week are seen on display at the Chicago Police Department in Chicago, Illinois, United States, August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

By Chris Kenning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A total of 101 people were shot in Chicago over an unusually violent Fourth of July weekend, leaving at least 14 dead, according to police and local media, as the city continues to grapple with gun crime.

Police officials counted 71 shooting incidents and 14 murders between 6 p.m. CDT on Friday and early Wednesday, according to data provided by police spokesman Frank Giancamilli on Wednesday.

The Chicago Tribune newspaper tallied the total number of victims shot in those incidents at 101 between Friday afternoon and early Wednesday. Police could not immediately provide the number of victims shot.

Gangs were a major source of the violence, Chicago Police First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Chicago police deployed 1,300 additional officers to patrol during the Fourth of July weekend, and had arrested 58 people on drug and gun charges ahead of the holiday in hopes of tamping down violence.

The number of shootings, which police said surged during a six-hour period on Monday night, was higher than in 2013, the last time the Fourth of July weekend spanned four days, when 74 people were shot, according to the Tribune.

The weekend brought the total number of people shot in Chicago this year above 1,800, below the 2,035 recorded at this time last year when violence spiked sharply, the Tribune reported.

The violence came less than a week after President Donald Trump tweeted that gun crime in Chicago had reached “epidemic proportions” and that he would be “sending in Federal help.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions later clarified that federal assistance for the city of 2.7 million will come in the form of the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force, a collaboration between the police and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Chicago’s ongoing struggles with violence come amid an effort to reform its police department after a federal investigation found officers routinely violated citizens’ civil rights and used excessive force and racially discriminatory conduct.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, an activist who heads a large African-American Catholic church in Chicago, said in an interview on Wednesday that more needs to be done to address underlying causes of violence such as unemployment, foreclosures, poverty and neighborhood blight.

“And people ask why I am flying the American flag upside down,” he wrote on Facebook. “We are safer in Iraq.”

(Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Patrick Enright and Lisa Shumaker)