Mexico will soon begin distributing compensation payments to the relatives of many of the hundreds of women killed in this violence-plagued border city since 1993, a special prosecutor assigned to the cases said on Tuesday. But exactly who will be eligible for payments, as well as how much they will receive remains unclear.
Federal prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina said payments would begin at the end of this month or early next month at the behest of President Vicente Fox, who has earmarked 25 million pesos (US$2.2 million) for the payment program after promising to compensate relatives of the Juarez victims during his Sept. 1 state of the union address.
According to government tallies, more than 300 women have been killed in this city across from El Paso, Texas, since 1993, though human rights leaders say the number is much higher. At least 100 of the killings appear to fit a pattern where a young, slender woman was sexually abused, strangled and dumped in the desert outside Juarez.
Many of those cases remain unsolved and only two men have been convicted for nine of the slayings.
Lopez Urbina said that the first to receive payments should be children and other close relatives of female victims. Her office was examining the case files of 342 slaying victims to determine who might receive payments, she said, but it was unclear how those eligibility decisions would be reached.
Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights calling for the release of his critics as “blatant interference.” The EU Parliament resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority the day before, called for the release of lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison on Thursday, but remained under judicial supervision. “The European Parliament [resolution] is a blatant interference in our affairs,” Saied said. “They can learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms.” Saied’s condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU’s ambassador for “failing to respect diplomatic rules.” He also
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
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