Centroamérica
A UN report denounces that slavery is institutionalized in North Korea
The use of forced labor in North Korea, of which they are victims from prisoners to soldiers or citizens abroad, is “deeply institutionalized” in the country and in some cases borders on slavery, a crime against humanity, a United Nations report reveals on Tuesday.
The 84-page document of the UN Office for Human Rights, prepared through interviews conducted in the last decade with 183 North Koreans fleeing the country and now residing in South Korea, offers details about this exploitation in the isolated Kim regime.
“They were forced to work in intolerable conditions, often in dangerous sectors, without salary, free choice, possibility of resignation, protection, medical care, break time, food and accommodation,” summarized the head of human rights of the United Nations, Volker Türk, when presenting the report.
Workers were also subjected to constant surveillance, were beaten frequently, and in the case of women (main testimonies of forced labor in detention centers) they were often victims of sexual violence, the Austrian High Commissioner stressed.
The report identifies different types of forced labor in North Korea, such as taxes in prisons and other detention centers, those who suffer employees whose jobs have been assigned by the State (something very common in the communist regime), or those observed in army soldiers.
There is also this type of exploitation that violates human rights in citizens sent abroad to send foreign currency to the regime, those summoned to special mobilizations or members of the so-called “shock brigades”, usually in the agriculture and construction sectors.
Some of the crudest testimonies of the report are those offered by more than a hundred women sentenced to forced labor after being forcibly repatriated after crossing the border illegally (usually it is usually the one that separates China and North Korea, although the report does not specify it).
After having fallen into networks of trafficking people that sometimes force them to prostitute themselves or contract forced marriages, they are repatriated and in detention they often suffer sexual and physical violence, sometimes forced abortions and denial of medical and hygienic services.
Detained in prisons, re-education camps and other detention centers, the victims relate the harshness of living and working conditions in agricultural, industrial and other tasks in which they often had to meet daily production quotas and received beatings or were deprived of food if they did not comply with them.
“They sent me to grow corn, cabbage, radishes… there was no machinery, so seven or eight of us pulled a cart that would normally be used with oxen,” says one of these women.
Another detainee, destined for construction work, said in the report that he was so hungry that he ate weeds and grass, which made him sick, while another, assigned to a group that carried bags of cement, said that they did not have masks, they constantly breathed the dust of the cement and “could barely breathe.”
In the North Korean army, the report adds, soldiers, who in many cases have to perform a military service of ten years or more, are often forced to also work in agriculture or construction, in dangerous conditions and without adequate health and safety measures.
A former nurse interviewed for the report reported that many of the soldiers she treated had symptoms of malnutrition, which in the worst cases degenerated into tuberculosis.
Abroad, North Korean citizens – often with certain social privileges – are forced to donate 90% of their profits to the State, in sectors such as those already mentioned (agriculture, construction) although there are also in the medical profession or in the hospitality industry.
In order to maintain control over these citizens abroad, their passports are confiscated, they are constantly monitored and they usually live in very bad conditions, with hardly any free time or contact with their families in North Korea, the report says.
In general, the regime controlled by Kim Jong-un, inherited from his father and grandfather, controls and exploits its citizens “through an extensive system of forced labor at various levels” intended for the interests of the State rather than the citizenry, concludes the United Nations study.
A system in which every North Korean, after completing his studies or military service, is assigned to a workplace without choice, or the possibility of forming unions, and where he lives under the threat of being arrested if he does not come to work, although sometimes he does not receive a salary for it.
In view of the conclusions of the report, the United Nations Office for Human Rights calls on North Korea to abolish this forced labor “and put an end to all its forms of slavery.”
He also requests the UN Security Council to direct the case to the International Criminal Court.
Central America
Nicaraguan Naval Force seizes cocaine on Pacific Coast, suspects escape
The Nicaraguan Army’s Naval Force reported on Tuesday the seizure of two bundles containing 80 packages of cocaine along the Pacific coast, although none of the four suspects were apprehended.
The illicit substance was seized near the Quizalá beach, in the municipality of San Rafael del Sur, Managua department. According to the military report, the four suspects “fled, leaving the drugs behind” after “detecting the presence of Army troops.”
The two “red bundles (…) contained 80 rectangular packages of cocaine,” the Nicaraguan Army stated.
The operation was conducted by the First Naval Troop Battalion “Commander Richard Lugo Kautz,” part of the Naval Force.
Authorities did not provide details on the individuals connected to the drug haul or the weight of the cocaine seized. They confirmed that the drugs were handed over to the relevant authorities for legal proceedings.
Nicaraguan authorities emphasize that they are implementing a strategy called the ‘Containment Wall,’ aimed at preventing the movement of drugs or drug-related money into populated areas. They maintain “close cooperation” with regional countries as well as the United States, Mexico, and Russia.
Nicaragua is located along a major drug trafficking corridor from South America to North America, where Mexican cartels operate, and the primary consumers are located.
Centroamérica
“Corruption was a man, but democratically!” says Rubén Blades after elections in Panama
Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades said on Monday that he “won corruption, but democratically” after the presidential triumph on the eve of José Raúl Mulino, the dolphin of former President Ricardo Martinelli, with 34% in the general elections in Panama.
“I write these lines with great regret. I was categorically mistaken in believing that J. R. (José Raúl) Mulino would not be elected president of Panama,” Blades wrote on his blog ´La Esquina´.
“On the contrary, in a public demonstration of support for corruption, a candidate chosen ‘by finger’ by a convicted and fugitive declared corrupt, with only 33% of the votes in today’s election, May 5, 2024, has become the new president of the Republic of Panama, despite the combined rejection of 67% of the rest of the electorate,” the famous singer added.
Mulino replaced Martinelli as a presidential candidate in these elections after he was disqualified by the sentence of more than 10 years in prison for money laundering, which led him to take asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama.
Mulino had a controversial in extremis candidacy that up to 48 hours before the elections was pending the Supreme Court of Justice after being sued for her alleged “unconstitutionality” because she was not elected in primaries or having a candidate for vice president, as established by the Magna Carta.
Blades, a critic of former President Martinelli who on other occasions has called him “corrupt,” questioned the “How can we insist on the youth that civic virtue is superior to opportunism, to the trap, to the ´play alive´? Almost 900,000 (nine hundred thousand people) gave their approval to Ricardo Martinelli by voting for his chosen one.”
“That’s the harsh reality,” the winner of multiple Grammy awards and former Panamanian Minister of Tourism categorically added.
He said that “for months” he had the “hope that this result would not occur,” because he knows that the country “has a spirit, a special soul that makes it wonderfully unique.”
“Young people like Juan Diego Vásquez and Gabriel Silva, and those who participated in the ‘Vamos por Panamá’ coalition as candidates, confirm my certainty that Panama can create honest and intelligent responses with which to carve out an honorable and successful destiny, despite the sorrows and disappointments that many of us experience today,” described the singer-songwriter.
Blades refers to the platform ´Vamos´, which he himself supported when he went out to campaign with those young independent deputies who rose in these elections with 19 seats in Parliament.
“So let’s prepare our minds and souls for what is to come. I fear that it will not be what some think will happen, a magical period of prosperity, and unlimited progress for Panama,” said the former minister, since Mulino promised a “pro-private enterprise” government that will resene the Panamanian economy, one of his campaign commitments.
And Blades concluded: “Whatever it is a matter of making up, a convict, corrupt and fugitive from justice has won the presidency of our republic through his anointed front man, with the direct vote of a people self-condemned for their irresponsibility and their refusal to consider the benefit that can result from living and accepting the consequences of civic honesty and the rejection of the poison of clientelism and ‘living play’.”
Centroamérica
The number of deaths from the floods in southern Brazil rises to 84
The floods caused by the heavy rains in southern Brazil already leave at least 84 dead and 111 missing, according to the balance released on Monday by the regional authorities.
The rainfall, which is just beginning to diminish in that area of the country after a week without truce, has affected more than 840,000 inhabitants of 345 municipalities, who suffer from the lack of food, medicines and basic services such as electricity and energy.
Data from the local Civil Defense indicate that, of that total, 121,957 people have been forced to leave their homes and move to the enclosures of family and friends, while another 19,368 are housed in shelters improvised by the authorities.
The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, on the border with Uruguay and Argentina, has been the most hit by the rains, with at least 83 fatalities, while the neighboring state of Santa Catarina recorded one death.
The authorities are also investigating whether four other victims are related to the climate tragedy that plagues the south of the country and that is already considered the worst natural disaster in the history of the region.
The level of the Guaíba River, whose waters flooded the historic center of Porto Alegre, the regional capital and where 1.3 million inhabitants live, stabilized above five meters, its largest mark.
With a population of 11 million inhabitants, Rio Grande do Sul has a total of 496 municipalities, of which 345 are affected.
At least 1.2 million homes and commercial establishments remain without electricity and 98 municipalities lack telephony and internet services.
Likewise, 61 roads reported total or partial blockages due to the flood of the rivers.
The Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the whole country have turned to help the victims.
There are currently more than 14,500 professionals in the region, most of the Armed Forces that have achieved 25,000 air, land and river rescues, with the support of 30 aircraft, 182 boats and 951 vehicles.
Weather forecasts announce new rains in areas already hit by storms due to a new cold front that will cause heavy rainfall.
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