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World

Honduran police arrest five after mob of 600 lynches Italian man

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TEGUCIGALPA, July 9 (Reuters) – Honduran police on Friday arrested five suspects for their role in killing an Italian man, who was lynched by a mob of more than 600 villagers in revenge for allegedly murdering a homeless man, the government said.

The villagers on Thursday attacked 65-year-old Giorgio Scanu with stones, sticks and machetes at his residence in the town of Santa Ana de Yusguare, in the southern Honduran department of Choluteca, the security ministry said.

The mob came after Scanu after he allegedly beat a 78-year-old homeless man to death on Wednesday for damaging ornamental plants in his garden, according to police reports based on complaints from local residents.

“More than 600 angry residents entered the residence and used sticks, stones and machetes to kill the Italian accused of having killed Mr. Juan de Dios Flores,” said Rebeca Martinez, a spokeswoman for the security ministry.

Parts of Scanu’s residence and a vehicle were set on fire, Martinez added.

Police arrested five people aged between 19 to 55 for the murder of Scanu, a retired engineer who had been living in the rural town and has two children and a wife who reside in Tegucigalpa, according to officials.

The authorities said they believe his family are Honduran.

Martinez said authorities are searching for others involved in Scanu’s lynching and that police were present at the time, but could not stop it due to the size of the mob.

Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Sandra Maler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

New video surfaces of Mexican president’s brother taking stacks of cash

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Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador participates on a commemoration on the third anniversary of his presidential election victory at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Reuters) – A Mexican news outlet broadcast video on Thursday of a brother of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador receiving stacks of cash several years ago, just ahead of a national vote in which the now-ruling party was competing in its first election.

The new video marks the second time that a brother of the president can be seen accepting large amounts of cash, several years before Lopez Obrador rode to a landslide presidential election victory in 2018 on a pledge to root out rampant corruption.

In the video released late on Thursday by Mexican news outlet Latinus, Martin Jesus Lopez Obrador can be seen receiving an envelope stuffed with a large stack of bills, which a narrator says totaled 150,000 pesos ($7,500) and were part of a recurring set of payments.

According to Latinus, the video was filmed in 2015 just ahead of elections in which the newly-formed Morena party of Lopez Obrador was competing in its first elections.

Latinus added that the cash was never reported to electoral authorities by Morena, and could amount to a campaign finance violation.

The man in the video giving the president’s younger brother the cash is David Leon, a political operative who served as an adviser to Lopez Obrador before heading Mexico’s civil protection agency. He gave up the government job last August.

The president’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Leon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Martin Jesus Lopez Obrador could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Leon was also filmed giving a different brother of Lopez Obrador – Pio Lopez Obrador – wads of cash in separate videos published by Latinus last year.

The president at the time said the cash came from legal contributions by his supporters and was used for the 2015 elections. He denied the payments amounted to corruption, but called on the attorney general’s office to investigate.

In response to the videos released last year, Leon said that from 2013 to 2018 he worked as a consultant “not a public servant,” adding that he supported Lopez Obrador’s political movement by “collecting funds among acquaintances in order to hold rallies and other activities.”

($1 = 19.9947 Mexican pesos)

Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Sharay Angulo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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‘Eye of fire’ in Mexican waters snuffed out, says national oil company

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MEXICO CITY, July 2 (Reuters) – A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula early on Friday has been extinguished, state oil company Pemex said, blaming a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze captured in videos that went viral.

Bright orange flames jumping out of water resembling molten lava was dubbed an “eye of fire” on social media due to the blaze’s circular shape, as it raged a short distance from a Pemex oil platform.

The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex.

The fire began in an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at Pemex’s flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil development, the company’s most important, four sources told Reuters earlier.

Ku Maloob Zaap is located just up from the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.

Pemex said no injuries were reported, and production from the project was not affected after the gas leak ignited around 5:15 a.m. local time. It was completely extinguished by 10:30 a.m.

The company added it would investigate the cause of the fire.

Pemex, which has a long record of major industrial accidents at its facilities, added it also shut the valves of the 12-inch-diameter pipeline.

Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico’s oil safety regulator ASEA, wrote on Twitter that the incident “did not generate any spill.” He did not explain what was burning on the water’s surface.

Ku Maloob Zaap is Pemex’s biggest crude oil producer, accounting for more than 40% of its nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily output.

“The turbomachinery of Ku Maloob Zaap’s active production facilities were affected by an electrical storm and heavy rains,” according to a Pemex incident report shared by one of Reuters’ sources.

Company workers used nitrogen to control the fire, the report added.

Details from the incident report were not mentioned in Pemex’s brief press statement and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reporting by Adriana Barrera and Marianna Parraga; Additional reporting by David Alire Garcia; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon, Philippa Fletcher and David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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