Authorities in Peru arrested two Peruvians on Monday as they tried to enter the country from Ecuador carrying some US$150,000 in cash, and a top official said they are linked to groups that may be funded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government.
"This morning police captured two individuals, one carrying US$50,000 and the other US$100,000," Peruvian President Alan Garcia's Cabinet chief, Jorge del Castillo, said in a meeting with foreign journalists. "Where did they get it?"
A congressional investigation concluded last week that Venezuela likely funds Peruvian leftist groups, including organizations backing a trade bloc promoted by Chavez as an alternative to US-sponsored trade initiatives. A Venezuelan official denied the report's conclusions.
A Venezuelan link is also suspected in the case of Roque Gonzalez, a former high-ranking member of the Cuban-inspired Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, who was arrested on Feb. 29 and is charged with forming part of an international terrorist group.
Authorities allege that he paid for members of a pro-Venezuela group to travel to an international leftist conference in Ecuador last month, and that he purchased multiple tickets all under his name to hide their identities.
The government says Gonzales is still a member of the MRTA.
"How did Roque Gonzalez, a prominent member of the MRTA who does not have any kind of employment, buy 15 tickets for his group to travel to Ecuador and back?" del Castillo said on Monday.
He said the government suspects Venezuela of providing "under the table" funding, but stopped short of accusing Chavez outright.
"There is evidently a hand that's financing this," del Castillo said. "I won't venture to single out anyone for now, to say `Hugo Chavez,' for now."
A spokeswoman at the Venezuelan embassy in Lima said nobody was immediately available to respond to del Castillo's comments.
But Venezuelan Ambassador Armando Laguna has strongly denied the allegations contained in last week's congressional report and told Peru's CPN radio that Lima should "ask me to leave Peru" if it finds proof that Venezuela is funding leftist groups in Peru.
Del Castillo said Peru would not tolerate any foreign meddling and would exercise its "right to defend its sovereignty" if the allegations are confirmed.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS