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CARACAS, July 12 (Reuters) – Venezuelan prosecutors on Monday said they had charged opposition politician Freddy Guevara with terrorism and treason, among other allegations, after the country’s intelligence service arrested him from his car on a Caracas highway.

Guevara is a close ally of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized as the South American country’s legitimate president by the United States and others. Guaido said unidentified armed men threatened him with arrest earlier on Monday as he left his apartment in an effort to assist Guevara.

In a statement, the chief prosecutor’s office said it had sought an arrest warrant for Guevara due to his alleged “ties with extremist groups and paramilitaries associated with the Colombian government.”

The incidents took place as the government and opposition prepare for negotiations planned for next month in Mexico with mediation by Norway aimed at resolving the South American country’s deep political crisis, people familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.

In an appearance on state television on Monday, Maduro confirmed the negotiation plans but said the opposition should renounce violent tactics ahead of the talks. Without naming Guevara or Guaido, he said he had proof some actors were plotting coups and that prosecutors acted on the basis of that proof.

“I agree with the Mexico and Norway table, but there must be conditions, there must be an express renunciation of violent practices,” Maduro said, adding that the United States and European Union should lift sanctions on Venezuela before the negotiations begin.

The U.S.-backed opposition labels President Nicolas Maduro a dictator, alleging he rigged his 2018 re-election and uses the justice system to stifle dissent.

“We strongly condemn the arrest of Venezuelan Congressman Freddy Guevara and threats against Interim President Juan Guaido in Venezuela,” Julie Chung, Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, wrote on Twitter.

She urged the international community to join in condemning the acts and called for the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela.

Maduro, who retains the support of the military, denies that the election was rigged, has labeled Guaido a U.S. puppet and has accused him of conspiring to oust him in a coup.

A spokesperson for Guaido’s office said Guevara, who was pardoned less than a year ago on 2017 charges of instigating violence, was taken to the Sebin intelligence service’s Helicoide prison in Caracas. The prosecutor’s office did not specify where he was being held.

‘GET OUT’

Reporters arrived outside Guaido’s residence in eastern Caracas minutes after his wife, Fabiana Rosales, tweeted that security forces had entered their apartment building in an attempt to arrest Guaido.

Neighbors had gathered in protest around two white, unmarked trucks in which sat men bearing bulletproof vests and assault rifles, some in balaclavas, according to a Reuters witness. Others wore hats that said DIE – the Spanish acronym for the Directorate of Intelligence and Strategy police unit.

“Dictatorship!” some of the neighbors yelled at the men. Others leaned out nearby windows banging on pots and pans.

Shortly afterwards, an unmarked gray Toyota truck filled with police raced out of the garage in the basement, leaving the residential complex. Minutes later, Guaido emerged from an SUV.

Guaido told the reporters gathered outside the building that the men had left, and said it was unclear which branch of the security forces they had belonged to.

“They intercepted us and pointed their weapons at us, in the basement,” Guaido told reporters.

Guaido’s office circulated two videos which they said showed the incident in Guaido’s basement. The videos show at least two men with bulletproof vests and balaclavas approaching a car, pointing assault rifles. Guaido is sat in the passenger seat. One of the men opens the driver’s door and forces the driver onto the ground, yelling “Get out!,” the videos show.

Venezuela’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

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WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) – One of the Haitian-American men arrested on suspicion of taking part in the assassination of Haiti’s president last week had been an informant to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a DEA official said on Monday.

Haitian authorities last week arrested two Haitian-American men, Joseph Vincent, 55, and James Solages, 35, and charged them with joining 26 Colombians in the fatal attack on Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to say which of the two men had been an informant.

“One of the suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise was a confidential source to the DEA,” the DEA official said in an email, adding that the suspect had reached out to the DEA after the assassination and that it urged him to surrender. “These individuals were not acting on behalf of DEA.”

The suspect was not an active informant at the time of the assassination, a law enforcement source said.

A third Haitian American, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested on Sunday by Haitian authorities, who accused him of being a mastermind of the attack.

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are probing why the Haitian-American men may have taken part in the assassination. read more

The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday that it had been asked by Haiti to assist in the probe of Moise’s murder, and was doing so.

“An initial assessment has been conducted in Haiti by senior U.S. officials,” said spokesman Anthony Coley. “The department will also investigate whether there were any violations of U.S. criminal law in connection with this matter.”

A source close to the investigation said Solages and Vincent told investigators they were translators for a Colombian commando unit that had an arrest warrant for Moise, but that when they arrived, they found Moise dead.

Solages described himself online as a “certified diplomatic agent” and the former “chief commander of bodyguards” for the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. Those statements were made on the website of a charity he ran, which on Thursday removed them. Reuters reviewed an archived version that remains accessible.

The Miami Herald quoted an unnamed government official as saying that a decade ago, Solages briefly worked for a company that provided security for the Canadian Embassy in Haiti.

“We are aware of allegations implicating an individual who was briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard by a security company hired by Global Affairs Canada in 2010,” the newspaper quoted the official as saying.

Florida records show Solages has held security officer and firearm licenses.

Few details have emerged about Vincent.

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image copyrightGetty Images

image copyrightGetty Images

image copyrightGetty Images

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“What we are noticing, is that when you go into businesses across Barbados, you get some businesses doing a temperature check, you get hand sanitizer. The worrisome part of these businesses is the operations that you do not see. We have good reason to believe those operations include how people mix and mingle within the business.

“There is a feeling of comfort with your peers, and the worrisome part of this is where persons mix for example when they have their lunch break or other breaks, they are close to each other, they are not social distancing, and they are not wearing their masks. So, it looks like a facade, that what is happening in the front is not necessarily what is being translated in the back of the business,” he said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic, also echoed the sentiments expressed by George and promised the COVID Monitoring Unit will step up its efforts to bring businesses in line with the health guidelines.

He told reporters that he will be meeting with the management of the COVID monitoring unit on Monday “because we have to enforce the protocols, and where people are not doing it on their own, then we have to take the necessary action to ensure that they do, if we are going to keep Barbados safe.”

CMC

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President Joe Biden said the United States supports the Cuban people and called their rare protests a “clarion call for freedom and relief” from the pandemic and generations of dictatorship.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement obtained by McClatchy.

“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights,” Biden said. “Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.”

The president’s response comes one day after thousands of people took to the streets in cities and towns across Cuba, including Havana, to call for an end to the nation’s decades-old dictatorship and demand food and vaccines, as shortages of basic necessities have reached crisis proportions and COVID-19 cases have soared.

The unprecedented protests erupted in several of the island’s largest cities – Havana, Santiago, Santa Clara, Matanzas, Cienfuegos and Holguín – but also in smaller towns like San Antonio de los Bañols, Palma Soriano, Cárdenas, Colón, Guira de Melena, Artemisa and others.

Videos show members of the police beating and even shooting demonstrators, after Cuba’s handpicked president told his loyalists to go out and confront protesters. “We´ll do anything,” he said, to stop the uprising. “The streets are for the revolutionaries.”

On Sunday evening, National Security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted that the U.nited States “would strongly condemn any violence or targeting of peaceful protesters who are exercising their universal rights.”

Last time Cubans took to the streets to protest against the Communist government was in 1994, when Fidel Castro was alive.

But the uprising, known as the Maleconazo, only took place in Havana and didn’t last long, as the former Cuban leader quickly turned the demonstrations into a massive exodus after he opened Cuba’s maritime borders.

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Pfizer to discuss vaccine booster with US officials Monday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer says it plans to meet with top U.S. health officials Monday to discuss the drugmaker’s request for federal authorization of a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser acknowledged that…Read More

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson flying own rocket to space

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) — After a lifetime of yearning to fly in space, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson was poised to blast off aboard his own rocket ship Sunday in his boldest, grandest adventure yet. …Read More

Condo collapse victim fought at failed Bay of Pigs invasion

Sixty years before Juan Mora’s Florida condo building came crashing down, killing him and at least 89 others, he was among hundreds of Cuban exiles who signed up for a covert, CIA-funded operation to overthrow Fidel Castro’s Soviet-backed dictatorshi…Read More

Gangs complicate Haiti effort to recover from assassination

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs in Haiti have long been financed by powerful politicians and their allies — and many feel they may be losing control of the increasingly powerful armed groups who have driven thousands of people from their homes as …Read More

For democracy, it’s a time of swimming against the tide

The old Nicaraguan revolutionary, with his receding hairline and the goatee that he had finally let turn grey, spoke calmly into the camera as police swarmed toward his house, hidden behind a high wall in a leafy Managua neighborhood. …Read More

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James Hockaday

Metro

The nation’s coronavirus death toll could rise to one million as the pandemic is far from over, a Government adviser has warned.

As Boris Johnson is poised to give the green light for so-called ‘Freedom Day’ on July 19, cases are continuing to soar across the country.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show one in 160 people in England, and one in 100 in Scotland, are thought to have Covid-19 — a 58% rise in one week.

An estimated 332,900 people had the virus in the week ending July 3, which is similar to mid-October levels, one month before the PM declared a second national lockdown.

The vaccine has ‘weakened’ the link between infections and hospitalisations, according to chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

But Johnson was criticised for suggesting it had been ‘broken’ or ‘severed’ when the number of patients is rising, albeit at a slower rate than in previous waves.

Yesterday the Department of Health confirmed another 26 people had died within 28 days of taking a test, bringing the official Covid death toll to 128,425.

But Professor Lucy Easthope, who advises the Cabinet Office and specialises in disaster response, believes the toll will ultimately rise to one million.

She says it is generally accepted that the effects of a pandemic will last between 10 and 15 years but that ministers have shied away from being open about this with the public.

The University of Durham professor told the Times: ‘The issue was about public tolerance of reality and last March it was decided that the public couldn’t handle the truth.’

She added: ‘The problem with a pandemic is that it’s not like a tap and you can’t just turn it off.

‘I don’t think we have been very honest with the public about this. When you are swimming for the shore, it is important to tell people how long the swim is.’

Professor Easthope said the decision to end lockdown on July 19 – including opening nightclubs and lifting capacity caps at large events – is in part political.

As well as having to consider people’s health and the burden faced by hospitals, she said the Government also wants to avoid civil disobedience after well over a year of restrictions.

On top of this, Downing Street also wants to give the economy room to recover and fend off a mental health crisis among young people.

To make matters worse, Professor Easthope, a fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at Bath University, thinks another pandemic could be closer than we think.

She warned that there are ‘much worse things out there’ than Covid-19 and pointed to 21 more serious diseases on the national risk register.

It comes after a recent Opinium poll showed 50% of people wanted to see the lifting of restrictions delayed, compared to 31% who thought it should still go ahead.

The data also showed 73% of respondents thought face-coverings should still be worn on public transport, but they are expected to be made non-compulsory from July 19.

Johnson has been warned it would be ‘dangerous’ to drop all restrictions at once while cases rise, but at a press conference last Monday, he said: ‘If not now, then when?’

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: ‘We’ve only just heard in this bulletin about the rising numbers of cases, the rising numbers of people requiring hospital treatment, in intensive care and sadly deaths are starting to rise again, too.

‘There seems to be a misapprehension that life will return to normal from then (July 19), and that we can throw away all the precautions, and frankly, that would be dangerous.’

Warning of the pressures already faced by medical staff, she added: ‘It feels in hospitals and GP surgeries as like the middle of winter in terms of how busy we are, rather than July, which would normally see a very low number of infections.’

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The prime minister will review the latest data tomorrow and set out our plans for step four. We need to learn to live with the virus, but caution remains key.

‘The prime minister will urge the public to continue to use their freedoms responsibly, so we do not put at risk the progress we have worked so hard for

===========================

WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

187,682,953

view by country

Deaths:

4,050,208

Recovered:

171,631,154

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