SAN SALVADOR, Dec 3 (Reuters) – El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced Saturday the deployment of 10,000 security forces to a suburb of San Salvador known to be a stronghold for gangs.
The move is the latest escalation in a crusade against gang violence that began in March, which human rights groups say has been marred by unjustified detentions.
“Soyapango is totally surrounded,” the president wrote on Twitter early Saturday, referring to the municipality in the eastern part of the capital region known to be a stronghold of the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs.
“8,500 soldiers and 1,500 agents have surrounded the city, while extraction teams from the police and the army are tasked with extricating all the gang members still there one by one.”
[1/5] Troops walk in the suburb of Soyapango, after El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced the deployment of 10,000 security forces to the troubled area which for years has been considered a stronghold of the violent Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, in San Salvador, El Salvador December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Government representatives declined to comment on the deployment.
Images released by the government showed troops carrying heavy weapons, helmets and bulletproof vests, traveling in war vehicles. The municipality has a population of about 300,000 and was previously considered impregnable for law enforcement.
Since he began his plan to combat gangs, Bukele has ordered the arrest of more than 50,000 alleged gang members, whom he describes as terrorists and has denied basic procedural rights to.
The plan aims to reduce the Central American country’s homicide rate to less than two a day, after dozens of Salvadorans were killed in a single weekend in March.
Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Edited by Noé Torres and Alexander Villegas and Franklin Paul
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NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping will arrive on the Indonesian island of Bali on Monday for a long-awaited meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) summit set to be fraught with tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The two leaders are expected to discuss Taiwan, Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, issues that will also loom over the G20 that opens on Tuesday without Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance.
Billionaire Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and Twitter Inc, addressed a business forum that is part of the summit and said he had “too much work” on his plate.
Speaking by videolink, he appeared lit by candles, wearing a batik shirt sent by the organisers. He said he was speaking from a place that had just lost power.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will represent the Russian president at the G20 summit – the first since Russia invaded Ukraine in February – after the Kremlin said Putin was too busy to attend.
On the eve of Monday’s meeting with Xi, Biden told Asian leaders in Cambodia that U.S. communication lines with China would stay open to prevent conflict, with tough talks almost certain in the days ahead.
The United States would “compete vigorously” with China while “ensuring competition does not veer into conflict”, said Biden, stressing the importance of peace in the Taiwan Strait during an address to the East Asia Summit in Cambodia. He arrived in Bali on Sunday night.
Relations between the superpowers have sunk to their lowest in decades, marred by growing tensions in recent years over a host of issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, trade practices and U.S. restrictions on Chinese technology.
But U.S. officials said there have been quiet efforts by both Beijing and Washington over the past two months to repair ties.
“These meetings do not take place in isolation, they are part of a very sustained process,” said one Biden administration official. “We have engaged in serious, sustained – dozens and dozens of hours – of quiet diplomacy behind the scenes.
“I think we are satisfied with the seriousness that both sides have brought to that process.”
Biden and Xi, who have held five phone or video calls since Biden became president in January 2021, last met in person during the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.
Monday’s face-to-face meeting will be at The Mulia, a luxury beachside hotel on Nusa Dua bay in Bali. It is unlikely to produce a joint statement, the White House has said, but it could help stabilise the bilateral relationship.
Both leaders will attend the opening of the G20 summit on Tuesday.
‘SOME DISCOMFORT’
One of the main topics at the G20 will be Russia’s war in Ukraine and Biden will be “unapologetic” in his defence of the European nation, U.S. officials said last week.
Xi and Putin have grown increasingly close in recent years, bound by their shared distrust of the West, and reaffirmed their partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. But China has been careful not to provide any direct material support that could trigger Western sanctions against it.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang emphasised the “irresponsibility” of nuclear threats during the summit in Cambodia, suggesting China was uncomfortable with strategic partner Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, the Biden administration official said.
The West has accused Russia of making irresponsible statements on the possible use of nuclear weapons since its February invasion of Ukraine. Russia has in turn accused the West of “provocative” nuclear rhetoric.
“There have been areas where China and Russia have worked together to deepen and broaden their relationship economically,” said the U.S. official. “But on some of these big issues, I think there is undeniably some discomfort in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia.”
Russia’s Lavrov said on Sunday the West was “militarising” Southeast Asia in a bid to contain Russian and Chinese interests, setting the stage for more confrontation with Western leaders at the G20.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will address the G20 gathering by videolink on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to meet Lavrov at the summit, a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement. He is also likely to hold a bilateral meeting with Biden.
The G20 bloc, which includes a broad array of countries ranging from Brazil to India and Germany, accounts for more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 60% of its population.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to join Indonesian President Joko Widodo to address the parallel B20 business forum taking place on Monday ahead of the G20 summit.
Reporting by Nandita Bose, Fransiska Nangoy, Leika Kihara and Simon Lewis in Nusa Dua; Writing by Kay Johnson and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Ed Davies and Robert Birsel
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Oct 18 (Reuters) – U.S. and Mexican authorities recently announced a new policy that would expel Venezuelans entering the U.S. land border back to Mexico, but allow up to 24,000 people from the country to apply for humanitarian entry into the United States by air.
As a result of the new policy, thousands of Venezuelans believed to be en route to the United States are now stranded between the two countries during a year when Venezuelans are arriving at the U.S. border in record numbers.
WHY WERE THE NEW MEASURES PUT IN PLACE?
The measures respond in part to political pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden to curb record numbers of illegal crossings at the Mexico-U.S. border. Venezuelans have been one of the largest groups of migrants involved in such crossings, in part because Washington granted temporary protection status last year to those who were on U.S. soil. Deporting Venezuelans is also more complicated than with migrants of other nationalities because the two countries broke diplomatic relations in 2019, making it difficult to organize deportation flights.
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More than 150,000 Venezuelans were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2021 and August 2022, compared with nearly 48,000 in fiscal-year 2021, according to U.S. government data. In September, over 33,000 Venezuelan individuals were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border – more than the number of unique crossers from Mexico and more than immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras combined, according to U.S. government data.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW TO VENEZUELANS IN TRANSIT TO THE UNITED STATES?
Those in transit may attempt to reach the United States despite the near certainty that they will be sent back to Mexico. Mexican authorities so far have given many of these individuals a deadline of no more than two weeks to leave the country. It is unclear where Venezuelans waiting in Mexico will stay, as Mexico’s migrant shelter system is often overwhelmed.
Some may return to Venezuela, while others could settle down in different Latin American countries, where Venezuelan migrants have in some cases faced discrimination, limited job opportunities and restrictions on their migratory status.
Half of the Venezuelan refugee and migrant population across Latin America and the Caribbean cannot afford three meals a day and lacks access to housing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), forcing many to resort to sex work or begging.
WHO CAN APPLY FOR THE NEW U.S. PROGRAM?
Venezuelans who meet the U.S. requirements may apply for the recently announced U.S. program. Among the requirements is having a U.S.-based supporter and holding a valid passport. The cost of a passport in Venezuela is $200, nearly ten times the country’s minimum wage.
Maria Victoria, 8, cries because she wants to see her father who is in the United States, during a protest on the banks of the Rio Bravo river, after Venezuelan migrants were expelled from the U.S. with their families and sent back to Mexico under Title 42, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
Only 1% of 1,591 migrants who left Venezuela between June and August held a passport, according to the Observatory of Social Investigations, a rights group.
WHAT TRIGGERED THE VENEZUELAN EXODUS?
Under late President Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, the country with the world’s largest oil reserves weathered corruption and inflation.
Then in 2014, Venezuela’s economy buckled as global oil prices tumbled, and living conditions further deteriorated as stringent price controls created widespread shortages. Products began to disappear from store shelves while black markets thrived with goods ranging from cooking oil to corn flour.
In 2018, inflation in Venezuela exceeded 1 million percent. Medicines for conditions from headaches to cancer were unavailable.
WHY ARE VENEZUELANS STILL MIGRATING?
Despite some improvements following a 2019 opening of the economy that included an informal dollarization, most Venezuelans still struggle to afford basic goods and services. Efforts by the government of Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, to ease economic restrictions have alleviated shortages and fueled consumption in high-income brackets, but left the vast majority of the population making wages that fall well short of the cost of living.
The monthly minimum wage in the OPEC-member nation is around $15 while the price of a basket of goods covering the monthly needs of a family of five was around $370 at the end of September, according to the nongovernmental Venezuelan Finance Observatory.
Even in the commerce and services sector of relatively wealthy Caracas, employees make an average of only around $130 a month. Meanwhile in the public sector, which employs some 2.2 million, the average monthly salary is about $20 to $30.
Economists say at least 30% of the population has not benefited from the new economic measures.
Remittances to Venezuelans from relatives in the United States or elsewhere help but are insufficient for most. Just one-fourth of Venezuelan families receive remittances, averaging only $70 a month, according to Caracas-based consultancy Anova.
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Reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas and Sarah Kinosian in Mexico City
Editing by Matthew Lewis
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WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – When a Washington state beauty salon charged Simran Bal $1,900 for training after she quit, she was shocked.
Not only was Bal a licensed esthetician with no need for instruction, she argued that the trainings were specific to the shop and low quality.
Bal’s story mirrors that of dozens of people and advocates in healthcare, trucking, retail and other industries who complained recently to U.S. regulators that some companies charge employees who quit large sums of money for training.
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Nearly 10% of American workers surveyed in 2020 were covered by a training repayment agreement, said the Cornell Survey Research Institute.
The practice, which critics call Training Repayment Agreement Provisions, or TRAPs, is drawing scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Sherrod Brown is studying legislative options with an eye toward introducing a bill next year to rein in the practice, a Senate Democratic aide said.
At the state level, attorneys general like Minnesota’s Keith Ellison are assessing how prevalent the practice is and could update guidance.
Ellison told Reuters he would be inclined to oppose reimbursement demands for job-specific instruction while it “could be different” if an employer wanted reimbursement for training for a certification like a commercial driving license that is widely recognized as valuable.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun reviewing the practice, while the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have received complaints about it.
The use of training agreements is growing even though unemployment is low, which presumably gives workers more power, said Jonathan Harris who teaches at the Loyola Law School Los Angeles.
“Employers are looking for ways to keep their workers from quitting without raising wages or improving working conditions,” said Harris.
The CFPB, which announced in June it was looking into the agreements, has begun to focus on how they may prevent even skilled employees with years of schooling, like nurses, from finding new, better jobs, according to a CFPB official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
“We have heard from workers and worker organizations that the products may be restricting worker mobility,” the official said.
TRAPs have been around in a small way since the late 1980s primarily in high-wage positions where workers received valuable training. But in recent years the agreements have become more widespread, said Loyola’s Harris.
Licensed esthetician Simran Bal, who was taken to court by her former employer to repay $1900 in trainings they required her to attend, poses for a portrait outside the King County District Court in Shoreline, Washington, U.S., October 13, 2022. Bal, whose case was dismissed, says she was already licensed for services the trainings covered. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson
One critic of the CFPB effort was the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, which said the issue was outside the agency’s authority because it was unrelated to consumer financial products and services.
“(Some state governments) have authority to regulate employer-driven debt. CFPB should defer to those governments, which are closer to the people of the states than the CFPB,” it added.
NURSING AND TRUCKING
Bal said she was happy when she was hired by the Oh Sweet salon near Seattle in August 2021.
But she soon found that before she could provide services for clients, and earn more, she was required to attend trainings on such things as sugaring to remove unwanted hair and lash and brow maintenance.
But, she said, the salon owner was slow to schedule the trainings, which would sometimes be postponed or cancelled. They were also not informative; Bal described them as “introductory level.” While waiting to complete the training, Bal worked at the front desk, which paid less.
When she quit in October 2021, Bal received a bill for $1,900 for the instruction she did receive. “She was charging me for training for services that I was already licensed in,” said Bal.
Karina Villalta, who runs Oh Sweet LLC, filed a lawsuit in small claims court to recover the money. Court records provided by Bal show the case was dismissed in September by a judge who ruled that Bal did not complete the promised training and owed nothing. Villalta declined requests for comment.
In comments to the CFPB, National Nurses United said they did a survey that found that the agreements are “increasingly ubiquitous in the health care sector,” with new nurses often affected.
The survey found that 589 of the 1,698 nurses surveyed were required to take training programs and 326 of them were required to pay employers if they left before a certain time.
Many nurses said they were not told about the training repayment requirement before beginning work, and that classroom instruction often repeated what they learned in school.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in comments that training repayment demands were “particularly egregious” in commercial trucking. They said firms like CRST and C.R. England train people for a commercial drivers license but charge more than $6,000 if they leave the company before a certain time. Neither company responded to a request for comment.
The American Trucking Associations argues that the license is portable from one employer to another and required by the government. It urged the CFPB to not characterize it as employer-driven debt.
Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who spent six months training and then driving truck, said the issue deserved scrutiny.
“Anytime we have training contracts for low-skilled workers, we should be asking why,” he said. “If you have a good job, you don’t need a training contract. People are going to want to stay.”
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Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker
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Diane Bartz
Thomson Reuters
Focused on U.S. antitrust as well as corporate regulation and legislation, with experience involving covering war in Bosnia, elections in Mexico and Nicaragua, as well as stories from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Nigeria and Peru.
SAN SALVADOR, Oct 10 (Reuters) – The death toll from storm Julia rose to at least 25 on Monday, officials said, with most victims in El Salvador and Guatemala, as the weakening storm dumped heavy rain on a swath of Central America and southern Mexico.
Salvadoran authorities reported the deaths of 10 people, including five soldiers, and said more than 1,000 people were evacuated.
In Guatemala, eight were killed between Sunday and Monday, according to officials, while seven were injured and hundreds more affected by the storm.
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Authorities in both El Salvador and Guatemala also canceled classes on Monday.
In Honduras, five victims have been confirmed including a woman who died Sunday after she was swept away by flood waters, and a four-year-old boy in a boat that capsized near the Nicaragua border on Saturday night, officials said.
Panama’s emergency services confirmed later on Monday two deaths as a result of heavy rains, with around 300 people evacuated from communities near the country’s border with Costa Rica.
Julia made landfall Sunday on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast before crossing into the Pacific Ocean.
By Monday afternoon, Julia had dissipated and what was left of the storm was moving northwest at 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) over Guatemala near the border with Mexico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The Miami-based NHC estimated Julia’s maximum sustained winds at about 30 mph (45 km/h).
The NHC warned of life-threatening surf and rip conditions along the coasts of El Salvador and Guatemala, while heavy rain could still cause flash flooding.
It predicted an additional one to four inches of rain in El Salvador and southern Guatemala, and three to six inches on Mexico’s Tehuantepec isthmus.
The storm system is expected to weaken further Monday, the NHC said.
Honduran authorities added that 9,200 people sought refuge in shelters.
In Nicaragua, Julia left a million people without power and heavy rains and floods forced the evacuations of more than 13,000 families.
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Reporting by Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Eli Moreno in Panama City; Enrique Garcia in Guatemala City and Brendan O’Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Richard Chang and Kim Coghill
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Visitors walk past a screen with the logo of Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) at the Atlapa Convention Center in Panama City March 13, 2013. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
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WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – The Inter-American Development Bank’s board of directors voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend firing President Mauricio Claver-Carone after an independent ethics investigation found misconduct, three sources familiar with the vote said.
The recommendation throws the final decision regarding Latin America’s largest development bank to its senior-most body, the board of governors, which will vote from Friday through Tuesday, one of the sources said.
Claver-Carone did not immediately respond to a phone call or text message seeking comment.
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A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined to confirm the vote, but said the United States, the bank’s largest shareholder with 30% of its voting shares, supported Claver-Carone’s removal from office and wanted to see “swift resolution” by the governors.
“President Claver-Carone’s refusal to fully cooperate with the investigation, and his creation of a climate of fear of retaliation among staff and borrowing countries, has forfeited the confidence of the bank’s staff and shareholders and necessitates a change in leadership,” the spokesperson said.
Claver-Carone, in a statement in response to the Treasury said, “It’s shameful the U.S. commented to the press before notifying me and that it is not defending two Americans against what is clearly fabricated information.”
The bank’s 14 directors voted after four long days of discussions and an appearance by Claver-Carone, who had been in New York for meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the board was nearing consensus on a vote to fire Claver-Carone.
Termination of Claver-Carone, a nominee of former U.S. President Donald Trump, requires a majority of the total voting power of the governing board. The bank’s three largest shareholders – the United States, Argentina and Brazil – together hold nearly 53% of the voting power. Claver-Carone took office in October 2020.
The governors are expected to approve the recommendation, said one of the sources.
Legal firm Davis Polk told the directors it found evidence to support whistleblower allegations that Claver-Carone had engaged in an intimate relationship with a subordinate and engaged in misconduct that violated the bank’s rules.
Investigators said they had uncovered evidence including a photograph of a hand-written contract on the back of a paper placemat, purportedly written and signed by Claver-Carone and the staffer, which stated, “we deserve absolute happiness” and a clause that stipulated any contract breach would result in “candle wax and a naughty box.”
U.S. officials were particularly concerned by Claver-Carone’s “behavior during the investigation, including his refusal to make available his IDB-issued work phone and other records,” a separate source familiar with the matter said.
They took issue with his “selective and misleading release of confidential information intended to taint the investigation and shape public opinion,” the source said. This had “undermined confidence in Claver-Carone’s trustworthiness and ability to lead a rules-based multilateral development institution,” the source added.
Claver-Carone also denied “direct evidence” that he had been in an undisclosed relationship with an IDB staff member who reported directly to him, and to whom he gave raises totaling more than 45% of base pay in less than one year, the source added.
U.S. officials felt Claver-Carone had created “an environment in which staff feared retaliation, including what appears to be actual retribution against senior and rank-and-file staff who participated fully and honestly in the investigation,” the source said.
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, had strongly opposed Trump’s nomination of Claver-Carone as the first American to lead the bank, a job traditionally held by someone from Latin America.
“That tradition should be reinstated, with a person of the highest integrity and professionalism,” Leahy told Reuters.
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Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City; Editing by Josie Kao and Stephen Coates
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Thomson Reuters
Mexico-based reporter focusing on climate change and companies with an emphasis on telecoms. Previously based in Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires covering the Argentine debt crisis, the tussle for influence between the United States and China in Latin America and the coronavirus pandemic.
MEXICO CITY, Sept 19 (Reuters) – A powerful earthquake struck western Mexico on Monday on the anniversary of two devastating temblors, killing at least one person, damaging buildings, knocking out power and sending residents of Mexico City scrambling outside for safety.
One person was killed in the Pacific port of Manzanillo when a department store roof collapsed on them, the government said. Authorities also reported damage to several hospitals in the western state of Michoacan near the epicenter, which was in a sparsely populated part of Mexico. One person was injured by falling glass at one of the hospitals, the government said.
The magnitude 7.6 quake hit shortly after 1 p.m. (1800 GMT) near the western coast and close to the Michoacan border with the state of Colima – where Manzanillo is located, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
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The quake was relatively shallow, at only 15 km (9 miles) deep, which would have amplified its impact.
Reuters Graphics
The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for parts of Mexico’s coast, saying waves reaching 1 to 3 meters (3 to 9 feet) above the tide level were possible.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said there were no immediate reports of major damage in the capital after the tremors, which rumbled through Mexico on the same day as destructive quakes battered the country in 1985 and 2017.
“It seems like a curse,” Isa Montes, a 34-year-old graphic designer in the city’s central Roma neighborhood, said of the quake’s timing as helicopters flew overhead, surveying the city.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one of the country’s most prestigious seats of higher learning, said there was no scientific explanation for three major quakes on the same day and attributed it to pure coincidence.
But others could not quite believe it.
“It’s this date. There’s something about the 19th,” said Ernesto Lanzetta, a business owner in the Cuauhtemoc borough of the city. “The 19th is a day to be feared.”
Thousands of people were killed in the Sept. 19, 1985 earthquake and more than 350 died in the Sept. 19, 2017 quake.
Vehicles damaged by the collapse of the facade of a department store during an earthquake are pictured in Manzanillo, Mexico September 19, 2022. REUTERS/Jesus Lozoya
Many Mexicans reacted to the latest quake by posting an array of memes online venting their amazement. read more
Before first announcing the death in Manzanillo, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had said there was material damage near the epicenter. Images posted on social media showed buildings badly damaged.
Mexican authorities said the seismic alert had sounded nearly two minutes before the quake struck, giving residents time to evacuate their homes.
Still, some people in the capital struggled to grasp it was a real quake as the government had already sounded the alarm earlier in the day as a practice exercise commemorating the past earthquakes on the same day.
POWER OUT
In Coalcoman, Michoacan, not far from the epicenter, pictures showed shingles knocked off homes and building walls cracked by the force of the quake. In one store, merchandise was scattered across the floor.
Power was knocked out in parts of Roma in Mexico City, some 400 km (250 miles) from the epicenter. The national power utility said outages hit 1.2 million users.
Residents of Roma stood on the streets cradling pets, while tourists visiting a local market with a guide were visibly confused and upset. Traffic lights stopped working, and people clutched their phones, sending text messages or waiting for calls to get through.
Clara Ferri, who owns an Italian bookshop in Roma, said she told a customer to get out as soon as she heard the windows rattle, her senses attuned to the sounds of incipient earthquakes after 16 years in the location.
“It was like the dentist’s drill for me,” she said.
The rumbling grew in intensity, and as Ferri gathered with neighbors at an intersection, she looked up to see the eight-story building that houses her shop sway from side to side.
When she returned, shelves had toppled like dominos, sending over 1,000 books into heaps on the floor.
Officials roped off the sidewalk, which was littered with masonry that appeared to have fallen off the building. Residents trickled out with pets and suitcases, preparing to spend the night elsewhere, and a woman carefully escorted her 89-year-old uncle in his blue-and-white striped pajamas.
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Additional reporting by Isabel Woodford, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Anthony Esposito, Raul Cortes and Mexico City Newsroom; writing by Dave Graham; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman
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MEXICO CITY, Aug 27 (Reuters) – A body found earlier this week in a Mexican resort town is believed to be that of a missing former radio host, though forensic tests were pending, local authorities said on Saturday.
Candida Cristal Vazquez, a former radio presenter who also worked in communications for the local police, was reported missing in late July.
The mayor of Mazatlan on Mexico’s Pacific coast, Luis Guillermo Benitez, told reporters on Saturday that tests were pending to confirm that a body found Thursday was Vazquez, but “everything indicates that it is her.”
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A statement from the state attorney general on Friday said family members had identified the body as Vazquez, but that it could not yet confirm the decomposing body was hers without results from genetic tests it had performed.
Police found the body floating in a canal in Mazatlan.
Mexican media has described Vazquez as a journalist. The Committee to Protect Journalists told Reuters it was still investigating whether she was a journalist and whether her death was motivated by her profession.
2022 is already the deadliest year on record for members of the Mexican press, with at least 18 journalists killed so far, according to Article 19. read more
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Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle and Kylie Madry; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Daniel Wallis
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NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Friday he has started to send buses carrying migrants to New York City in an effort to push responsibility for border crossers to Democratic mayors and U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
The first bus arrived early on Friday at the city’s Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan carrying around 50 migrants from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras and Venezuela. Volunteers were helping to steer people who had no relatives in town to city resources.
“Most of them don’t have anybody to help. They don’t know where to go, so we’re taking them to shelters,” said one volunteer at the bus station, Evelin Zapata, from a group called Grannies Respond.
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One family of four from Colombia, who ended up at a homeless intake center in the Bronx, were unsure of where they would spend the night. Byron and Leidy, both 28, said they left the country’s capital Bogota because they were having trouble finding work. They did not provide their last name.
“It’s a little easier to enter the country now, before it was very hard to come here with children,” said Leidy, who traveled with her kids Mariana, 7, and Nicolas, 13. She said the family had hoped someone they knew in New York would take them in, but that plan did not work out. “We came here because they said they would help us find a place to sleep to not have to stay in the street,” Leidy said.
Abbott, who is running for a third term as governor in November elections, has already sent more than 6,000 migrants to Washington since April in a broader effort to combat illegal immigration and call out Biden for his more welcoming policies. read more
Biden came into office in January 2021 pledging to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but some efforts have been blocked in court.
Abbott said New York City Mayor Eric Adams could provide services and housing for the new arrivals.
“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Abbott said in a statement.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, another Republican, has followed Abbott’s lead and bused another 1,000 to Washington.
U.S. border authorities have made record numbers of arrests under Biden although many are repeat crossers. Some migrants who are not able to be expelled quickly to Mexico or their home countries under a COVID-era policy are allowed into the United States, often to pursue asylum claims in U.S. immigration court.
‘POLITICAL PAWNS’
Texas Governor Greg Abbott holds a news conference with state agencies and local officials at Uvalde High School, three days after a gunman killed nineteen children and two adults in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. May 27, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello
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Adams’ office has in recent weeks criticized the busing efforts to Washington, saying some migrants were making their way to New York City and overwhelming its homeless shelter system.
On Friday the mayor’s press secretary Fabien Levy said Abbott was using “human beings as political pawns,” calling it “a disgusting, and an embarrassing stain on the state of Texas.”
Levy said New York would continue to “welcome asylum seekers with open arms, as we always have, but we are asking for resources to help do so,” calling for support from federal officials.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday called the Texas initiative “shameful” and an unnecessary burden on taxpayers in that state.
Costs for the effort amounted to $1.6 million in April and May, a local NBC News affiliate reported in June, more than $1,400 per rider.
Texas officials declined to provide the cost when asked by Reuters.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has also said her city’s shelter system has been strained by migrant arrivals and last month called on the Biden administration to deploy military troops to assist with receiving the migrants, a request that has frustrated White House officials. read more
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had declined a request for D.C. National Guard to help with the transportation and reception of migrants in the city because it would hurt the troops’ readiness.
Bowser suggested on Friday that she would submit a more targeted troop request, reiterating her stance that the federal government should handle what she called a “growing humanitarian crisis.”
“If the federal government’s not going to do it, they need to at least get out of our way and give us the resources that we need,” she told reporters.
Many migrants are arriving after long and difficult journeys through South America.
Venezuelan migrant Jose Gregorio Forero said before traveling more than a day by bus from Texas he had crossed through eight countries. “It’s taken 31 days to get here, on foot and asking for rides,” he said, saying he was glad to be in New York where he thought there would be more job opportunities.
New York City, he said, “is very beautiful. I love it.”
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Reporting by Sofia Ahmed in New York and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Jeff Mason in Washington, Roselle Chen and Dan Fastenberg in New York; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
LUVERNE, Alabama, July 22 (Reuters) – A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker’s assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory.
Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC, these people said. SMART, listed by Hyundai in corporate filings as a majority-owned unit, supplies parts for some of the most popular cars and SUVs built by the automaker in Montgomery, its flagship U.S. assembly plant.
In a statement sent after Reuters first published its findings on Friday, Hyundai (005380.KS) said it “does not tolerate illegal employment practices at any Hyundai entity. We have policies and procedures in place that require compliance with all local, state and federal laws.” It didn’t answer detailed questions from Reuters about the findings.
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SMART, in a separate statement, said it follows federal, state and local laws and “denies any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment.” The company said it relies on temporary work agencies to fill jobs and expects “these agencies to follow the law in recruiting, hiring, and placing workers on its premises.”
SMART didn’t answer specific questions about the workers cited in this story or on-the-job scenes they and other people familiar with the factory described.
Reuters learned of underage workers at the Hyundai-owned supplier following the brief disappearance in February of a Guatemalan migrant child from her family’s home in Alabama.
The girl, who turns 14 this month, and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren’t going to school, according to people familiar with their employment. Their father, Pedro Tzi, confirmed these people’s account in an interview with Reuters.
Police in the Tzi family’s adopted hometown of Enterprise also told Reuters that the girl and her siblings had worked at SMART. The police, who helped locate the missing girl, at the time of their search identified her by name in a public alert.
Reuters is not using her name in this article because she is a minor.
The police force in Enterprise, about 45 miles from the plant in Luverne, doesn’t have jurisdiction to investigate possible labor-law violations at the factory. Instead, the force notified the state attorney general’s office after the incident, James Sanders, an Enterprise police detective, told Reuters.
Mike Lewis, a spokesperson at the Alabama attorney general’s office, declined to comment. It’s unclear whether the office or other investigators have contacted SMART or Hyundai about possible violations. On Friday, in response to Reuters’ reporting, a spokesperon for the Alabama Department of Labor said it would be coordinating with the U.S. Department of labor and other agencies to investigate.
Pedro Tzi’s children, who have now enrolled for the upcoming school term, were among a larger cohort of underage workers who found jobs at the Hyundai-owned supplier over the past few years, according to interviews with a dozen former and current plant employees and labor recruiters.
Several of these minors, they said, have foregone schooling in order to work long shifts at the plant, a sprawling facility with a documented history of health and safety violations, including amputation hazards.
Most of the current and former employees who spoke with Reuters did so on the condition of anonymity. Reuters was unable to determine the precise number of children who may have worked at the SMART factory, what the minors were paid or other terms of their employment.
The revelation of child labor in Hyundai’s U.S. supply chain could spark consumer, regulatory and reputational backlash for one of the most powerful and profitable automakers in the world. In a “human rights policy” posted online, Hyundai says it forbids child labor throughout its workforce, including suppliers.
The company recently said it will expand in the United States, planning over $5 billion in investments including a new electric vehicle factory near Savannah, Georgia.
“Consumers should be outraged,” said David Michaels, the former U.S. assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, with whom Reuters shared the findings of its reporting.
“They should know that these cars are being built, at least in part, by workers who are children and need to be in school rather than risking life and limb because their families are desperate for income,” he added.
At a time of U.S. labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, labor experts told Reuters there are heightened risks that children, especially undocumented migrants, could end up in workplaces that are hazardous and illegal for minors.
In Enterprise, home to a bustling poultry industry, Reuters earlier this year chronicled how a Guatemalan minor, who migrated to the United States alone, found work at a local chicken processing plant read more .
“WAY TOO YOUNG”
Alabama and federal laws limit minors under age 18 from working in metal stamping and pressing operations such as SMART, where proximity to dangerous machinery can put them at risk. Alabama law also requires children 17 and under to be enrolled in school.
Michaels, who is now a professor at George Washington University, said safety at U.S.-based Hyundai suppliers was a recurrent concern at OSHA during his eight years leading the agency until he left in 2017. Michaels visited Korea in 2015, and said he warned Hyundai executives that its heavy demand for “just-in-time” parts was causing safety lapses.
The SMART plant builds parts for the popular Elantra, Sonata, and Santa Fe models, vehicles that through June accounted for almost 37% of Hyundai’s U.S. sales, according to the carmaker. The factory has received repeated OSHA penalties for health and safety violations, federal records show.
A Reuters review of the records shows SMART has been assessed with at least $48,515 in OSHA penalties since 2013, and was most recently fined this year. OSHA inspections at SMART have documented violations including crush and amputation hazards at the factory.
The plant, whose website says it has the capacity to supply parts for up to 400,000 vehicles each year, has also had difficulties retaining labor to keep up with Hyundai’s demand.
In late 2020, SMART wrote a letter to U.S. consular officials in Mexico seeking a visa for a Mexican worker. The letter, written by SMART General Manager Gary Sport and reviewed by Reuters, said the plant was “severely lacking in labor” and that Hyundai “will not tolerate such shortcomings.”
SMART didn’t answer Reuters questions about the letter.
Earlier this year, attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit against SMART and several staffing firms who help supply workers with U.S. visas. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of a group of about 40 Mexican workers, alleges some employees, hired as engineers, were ordered to work menial jobs instead.
SMART in court documents called allegations in the suit “baseless” and “meritless.”
Many of the minors at the plant were hired through recruitment agencies, according to current and former SMART workers and local labor recruiters.
Although staffing firms help fill industrial jobs nationwide, they have often been criticized by labor advocates because they enable large employers to outsource responsibility for checking the eligibility of employees to work.
One former worker at SMART, an adult migrant who left for another auto industry job last year, said there were around 50 underage workers between the different plant shifts, adding that he knew some of them personally. Another former adult worker at SMART, a U.S. citizen who also left the plant last year, said she worked alongside about a dozen minors on her shift.
Another former employee, Tabatha Moultry, 39, worked on SMART’s assembly line for several years through 2019. Moultry said the plant had high turnover and increasingly relied on migrant workers to keep up with intense production demands. She said she remembered working with one migrant girl who “looked 11 or 12 years old.”
The girl would come to work with her mother, Moultry said. When Moultry asked her real age, the girl said she was 13. “She was way too young to be working in that plant, or any plant,” Moultry said. Moultry didn’t provide further details about the girl and Reuters couldn’t independently confirm her account.
Tzi, the father of the girl who went missing, contacted Enterprise police on Feb 3, after she didn’t come home. Police issued an amber alert, a public advisory when law enforcement believes a child is in danger.
They also launched a manhunt for Alvaro Cucul, 21, another Guatemalan migrant and SMART worker around that time with whom Tzi believed she might be. Using cell phone geolocation data, police located Cucul and the girl in a parking lot in Athens, Georgia.
The girl told officers that Cucul was a friend and that they had traveled there to look for other work opportunities. Cucul was arrested and later deported, according to people familiar with his deportation. Cucul didn’t respond to a Facebook message from Reuters seeking comment.
After the disappearance generated local news coverage, SMART dismissed a number of underage workers, according to two former employees and other locals familiar with the plant. The sources said the police attention raised fears that authorities could soon crack down on other underage workers.
Tzi, the father, also once worked at SMART and now does odd jobs in the construction and forestry industries. He told Reuters he regrets that his children had gone to work. The family needed any income it could get at the time, he added, but is now trying to move on.
“All that is over now,” he said. “The kids aren’t working and in fall they will be in school.”
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Editing by Paulo Prada
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.