Daily Headlines: March 15, 2013

* Mexico: Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission called for an investigation of twenty-one current and former law enforcement officials over possible abuses in the Florence Cassez case.

* Latin America: Helen Clark, the head of the U. N. Development Program, praised the “very useful” debate in Latin America regarding changes to the “war on drugs.”

* Puerto Rico: U.S. Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer hinted that they would consider the possibility that a “natural-born” Puerto Rican could legally run for president.

* Peru: Susana Villaran, the mayor of the Peruvian capital city of mayor, risks being ousted in a recall vote set to take place on Sunday.

Video Source – YouTube via user JewishNewsOne

Online Sources- Huffington Post, Reuters, NBC News, LAHT

Daily Headlines: January 25, 2013

* Mexico: Florence Cassez returned to her native France hours after being freed by Mexico’s top court and described her seven-year imprisonment as an “injustice”.

* Cuba: Officials in Cuba confirmed that an underwater fiber optic Internet cable connected to Venezuela was activated this month.

* Colombia: Peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels reportedly “advance in a climate of respect and of broad dialogue.”

* U.S.: A new report released this week found that the Latino on-time high school graduation rate increased by 10% between 2006 and 2010.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- NBC Latino, Hispanically Speaking News, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, LAHT

Mexican High Court Orders Release of Florence Cassez

Mexico’s top court ordered the immediate release of Florence Cassez, a Frenchwoman convicted five years ago for participating in a kidnapping ring.

Three of the five Mexican Supreme Court justices agreed with the motion by Justice Olga Sanchez that alleged that that the case against Cassez was riddled with irregularities.  Her motion, which was first presented last year, alleged that the victims’ testimony against Cassez was contradictory. Furthermore, some of the testimony against her was based on a staged TV raid of the kidnapping gang that gave the false impression that Cassez was part of that arrest.  (Portions of that faked raid including Cassez’ shocked reaction in from of the cameras can be seen in the above embedded video).

Cassez was originally sentenced in 2008 to ninety-eight years in prison in a closed-door, non-jury trial.  Last March the top court rejected an appeal in Cassez’ name but accepted reviewing her case.  Nevertheless, the court’s decision this afternoon was reportedly a surprise since it was expected that they would order a retrial instead of overturning her sixty-year prison sentence and calling for Cassez to be freed.  

Her case has led to diplomatic tensions between France and Mexico; for instance, then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy suggested dedicating the 2011 “Year of Mexico in France” cultural festival in honor of Cassez.

The court’s decision will likely be a black eye against a Mexican justice system allegedly plagued by problems.  Yet as noted by Spanish daily El Mundo, today’s ruling also represents a black eye to a key figure of the administration of ex-President Felipe Calderon: