International
Daniel Sancho, before his sentence: “I am prepared for the best and for the worst”
The Spaniard Daniel Sancho claims to be “prepared for the best and the worst” before the sentence that will determine on August 29 whether or not he is guilty of the premeditated murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta on an island in Thailand last year.
“I am prepared for the best and the worst,” Daniel Sancho told EFE on August 22 in Samui prison (southern Thailand) when asked how he faces the ruling, although he was optimistic and convinced that the judge will rule out that Arrieta’s death was due to a premeditated murder.
The Spaniard considered that during the trial “it was clear that it was an accident,” referring to Arrieta’s death on August 2, 2023 on the Thai island of Phangan, and cited the forensic evidence presented by the defense that, according to him, would prove that the death was due to a fight.
Sancho, 30 years old, made these statements during a visit to the prison and the conversation took place through a glass and a telephone without being able to record or take notes.
After more than a year in pretrial detention, the young man admitted that he lives impatiently waiting to know the sentence and that the months since the celebration of the trial, which ended last May, have become “very long.”
“Until the trial he was a man with a mission,” he said, and indicated that he spent a lot of time focused and preparing for the process, in which he played a very active role, since the judge allowed him to ask questions to the witnesses.
During the trial, held behind closed doors at the Provincial Court of Samui between April 9 and May 2, the accused and his defense team maintained that Arrieta’s death was due to an accident during a fight and that the Spaniard acted in self-defense in the face of an alleged attempted sexual assault.
The Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, tried to prove through dozens of evidence and witnesses, including the purchase of knives and a saw, that Sancho planned the previous days the murder and dismemberment of Arrieta, 44, whose remains were found in several places in Phangan, including the sea.
The autopsy performed at the Colombian surgeon was not conclusive because no key body parts such as the torso were found.
The Spaniard, who keeps the last few days before listening to the sentence his usual exercise and reading routine, had met with the Colombian surgeon, whom he knew since 2022, on the same day of the events.
The accused, who initially confessed to the crime to the Phangan Police, will go to the reading of the sentence next Thursday in the Samui court, where the trial was held in the midst of enormous media attention.
According to sources close to the case, the sentence is already drafted and has been sent for ratification to the office of the dean judge of Surat Thani (province on which Samui depends).
Sancho assured that it gives him “tranquility” and “confidence” in the process of this procedure, usual in Thailand for serious cases, both criminal and civil, that may involve high penalties or compensation.
The Thai penal code contemplates from 15 years in prison to the death penalty in cases of murder, although Thailand barely applies this last punishment and is usually commuted to lower ones.
Cases of involuntary manslaughter are punishable by between 3 and 15 years in prison.
The Spaniard is also accused of dismembering Arrieta’s body – of which he has pleaded guilty – and of making his passport disappear, crimes that could lead to between one and six years in prison, respectively.
Access to the courtroom during the reading of the sentence this Thursday will be very restricted, and the judge will not decide until the last moment who can enter, according to EFE.
It is planned, however, that the defendant’s father and mother, the Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho and the investment analyst Silvia Bronchalo, will be present in the room, as well as the prosecutor, the Thai defense lawyers and those who represent the victim’s family in the Asian country.
Arrieta’s family will in principle not go to the reading of the sentence, and for the moment they have not wanted to make statements about how they face the ruling.
International
At least ten dead in Iran in a bus accident in the west of the country
At least ten people lost their lives this Saturday when a passenger bus fell down a ravine on a highway in the province of Lorestan, in western Iran.
“The bus that left Andimeshk (Juzestan province) to Poldokhtar (Lorestan), went off the road and fell into a ravine so unfortunately at least 10 people have died,” announced the executive director of the Red Crescent of the province of Lorestan, Mohammad Ghadami, reported the Tasnim agency.
The official did not give details about the number of injured in the accident and their state of health.
Ghadami said that four rescue teams were sent to the scene of the incident immediately after it was reported at 12:39 local time (9:10 GMT) this Saturday.
Mortality on roads, one of the highest in the world
Traffic accidents are very common in Iran, where the road mortality rate is one of the highest in the world, with an average of 20,000 deaths per year.
Many of the accidents are due to the poor condition of the vehicles and the poor compliance with traffic rules by drivers.
Last August, at least 28 Pakistani pilgrims died when the bus in which they were traveling overturned in central Iran, in an accident that occurred due to a brake failure.
International
Helene, the violent hurricane that destroyed the southeastern United States
Hurricane Helene is one of the extreme climatic events that have starred this 2024 after leaving more than 150 direct deaths and billions of dollars in losses in six states of the southeastern United States, according to preliminary figures.
The deadly Helene, which in the continental United States has only been surpassed by Katrina (2005), ended with more than 150 deaths, at least a hundred in North Carolina, in addition to leaving a path of destruction that reached the mountainous area of that state with special virulence.
After impacting Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula, Helene made landfall on September 26 with winds of 225 kilometers per hour in the Big Bend region of Florida, in the northwest of that state, as the most powerful cyclone in that region since records have been available.
From Florida, where it arrived as a major hurricane, and while it weakened progressively to become a tropical depression, Helene continued on land through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
North Carolina was the one that took the worst part, not only for the number of deaths but for the economic losses, which amount to more than 59.6 billion dollars, according to an update from the state government released this month.
The historic rainfall of up to 76 centimeters caused floods and landslides in this state, which caused serious damage, and long-term, both in homes and in public infrastructure and the agricultural industry.
Million-dollar economic losses
Quantifying at this time the economic losses in all the states impacted by Helene, which generated strong winds and tornadoes, is difficult because there are discrepancies in the damage assessment since it produced “a large-scale disaster,” as Mónica Escaleras, professor of the Department of Economics at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), told EFE.
“The widespread nature of the damage, the diversity of affected sectors and ongoing recovery efforts” are factors that prevent an accurate estimate at present, he added.
Escaleras believes, however, that Helene is a reflection of how in recent years “extreme weather events have become increasingly frequent and intense, altering infrastructure and supply chains.”
A preliminary report from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Florida (UF/IFAS) estimates that agricultural losses in this southern state due to Helene can range between 40.3 and 162.2 million dollars, after destroying 6.1 million acres (2.4 million hectares) of arable land.
More hurricanes like Helene in the future
A key factor in Helene’s intensity were the high temperatures in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, whose surfaces were at about 29.4 degrees Celsius when the system began to form.
A preliminary study by the World Weather Attribution network of scientists reflected that this temperature is the result of climate change, which made Helene’s effects worse, responsible for example for 10% more rain.
“It is expected that the growing occurrence of these events will generate higher insurance premiums and may lead to the withdrawal of coverage in high-risk areas, which will affect both the real estate and business sectors,” Escaleras said.
This possible future scenario can, on the other hand, affect unprotected communities more, such as the Hispanic one in the United States. The Climate Power organization revealed last week a report that shows that Latino communities have been the great victims of the extreme weather events that occurred in 2024.
The report in question found that many Latino families in western North Carolina live in trailers flooded or destroyed by the storm, and that not mastering English they had obstacles when it came to receiving information about recovery tasks.
Antonieta Cádiz, executive director of the Climate Power In Action campaign, reminded EFE of the case of the workers of a plastics factory in Erwin (Tennessee) who died after a negligence in their evacuation, which was not carried out due to the imminent effects of Helene, employees who were mostly Hispanic.
The above, he said, is a sample of the disproportionate and “deep inequalities” that affect the Hispanic community when it comes to extreme weather events.
International
The piangua, the mangrove mollusk that empowers women in the Colombian Pacific
When the low tide in the Colombian Pacific, a group of women put on rubber boots, take a raft and enter a mangrove forest to collect the piangua, a mollusk that, in addition to providing food to their families, empowers them and gives them a voice in their territory.
They are in the community of La Plata, in the heart of the Uramba-Bahía Málaga National Natural Park, and they have just six hours to work before the sea rises again. Stuck in the mud they sing to liven up their days and regardless of the sun or rain they fill their containers with this mollusk similar to the mussel with which they prepare delicious recipes.
“It is a very important ancestral activity because it allows us to have economic sustainability as women, to be a symbol of resistance to cultural traditions and to take care of our gastronomic traditions,” Matilde Mosquera Murillo, legal representative of the Raíces Piangüeras Association.
Mosquera, 27 years old and a sociologist by profession, took on the challenge of leading that organization created in 2019 and has managed to bring together more than 70 women who are dedicated to this profession in the Community Council of La Plata-Bahía Málaga, where they play a fundamental role in conservation.
“We monitor mangroves, because we know the importance they have in the ecosystem, they are the cradle of thousands of species. We also make every process sustainable so that all the initiatives we lead allow us to take care of nature,” Mosquera insists.
International recognition
Their work already has international recognition and since 2023 they have held the ‘Meeting of Women of the Colombian Pacific’. In the first edition they asked the National Government to advocate before UNESCO to declare the piangüeo as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
“We believe in the need for a political strengthening of women, that our voice is heard and that we are part of the decisions that are made in the country so that we have votes in public policies and that they recognize our ancestral work in the world,” she adds.
The environmental richness of the La Plata archipelago is enormous and its 32 islands and islets are the habitat of 1,396 species of birds, reptiles, mammals and felines, as well as 60 classes of frogs, 25 of lizards and 52 of snakes.
There are also eight species of sharks, 22 rays and 348 of fish that have six types of mangroves as their home: red mangrove, born mangrove, ped mangrove, button or button mangrove, bobo mangle and feeder mangle.
Unity and awareness
According to Santiago Valencia, leader of the Community Council of La Plata-Bahía Málaga, women use a ‘piangüímetro’, a tool that works as a rule that allows them to measure the mollusk when it has already passed its reproductive stage.
“Their organization is as strong as the roots of the mangrove and they even come together to reforest when they see it necessary. This unity has made them look for other alternatives because they see that everything is possible and today they see themselves as what they are: powerful women, businesswomen and nature lovers,” says Valencia.
Currently, women piangüeras work in the search for resources that allow them to access studies to improve and strengthen their processes.
Some of them have already created other ventures for the manufacture of ointments based on medicinal plants from the jungle, ancestral drinks and even think about packing the piangua in a vacuum to export it to other countries.
“When we go to the mangrove we sing as a symbol of power, to express our feelings, it also serves to harmonize our activity and understand that we are important; we will leave this inheritance to our children and it will continue for generations,” concludes Mosquera.
At least ten dead in Iran in a bus accident in the west of the country
Helene, the violent hurricane that destroyed the southeastern United States
The piangua, the mangrove mollusk that empowers women in the Colombian Pacific
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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