Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Peru
Newsline: Colombia orders arrest of ambassador to Peru
Colombia’s Prosecutor General has ordered the arrest of the country’s Ambassador to Peru due to his alleged paramilitary links. Jorge Visbal Martelo is accused of having close ties with the head of the AUC’s Northern Bloc while he was president of the Colombian Federation of Cattle-Ranchers between 1998 and 2004, and seeking paramilitary support during the 2006 elections. The former congressman is said to be listed on a seized computer that belonged to the extradited paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias “Jorge 40,” in documents that have led the Colombia’s Supreme Court to conclude the two men had a close working relationship. Ex-AUC commander Salvatore Mancuso and other paramilitaries have also implicated Visbal, the former senator and ambassador to Canada under the government of Alvaro Uribe, in the “parapolitics” scandal. They allege he was one of the “principal cattle-ranchers who paid the paramilitaries in Sucre,” reported newspaper El Tiempo. Responding to the allegations, Visbal said that his contact with the paramilitaries was limited to his work with an agricultural entrepreneurs group which contacted the paramilitaries on several occasions to propose a “humanization” of the war and seek a possible peace process.
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/22830-arrest-warrant-out-for-colombian-ambassador-to-peru.html
Newsline: Man charged with murdering Peruvian embassy employee in Tel Aviv
An indictment has been filed in the Central District Court accusing a 24-year-old man of murdering Rodrigo Castillo Cordova, an employee of the Embassy of Peru, the Justice Ministry announced. Segundo Florinda Levy Vargas is accused of beating to death 45-year-old Castillo, who had worked as an assistant to the military attache at the Embassy of Peru in Tel Aviv. According to the indictment, Vargas planned to kill Cordova, with whom he shared an apartment in Ramle, after suspecting the Peruvian had begun to have sexual relations with Vargas’s 20-year-old girlfriend. On September 18, Vargas, allegedly a skilled martial arts practitioner and member of the Wing Chun martial arts organization, is charged to have launched a physical assault on the Peruvian. Using his martial arts skills, Vargas allegedly struck Cordova repeatedly, causing severe injuries to his head and neck. The indictment also charges Vargas with tampering with evidence in order to hamper any criminal investigation. Vargas put on gloves and cleaned up the crime scene as Cordova’s body lay bleeding on the floor, according to the indictment. He then allegedly changed his clothes, showered, covered his head and left the apartment with the clothes he had worn during the murder, which he disposed of in a nearby garbage can.
Newsline: Missing Peruvian found dead in Moscow
A Peruvian diplomat who went missing in the Russian capital on New Year’s Day has been found dead in the Moscow river, investigators say. The body of 30 year-old Sergio Del Castillo Cebreros was identified by his tattoo, a police source told Russian news agencies. The diplomat, who was the head of consular affairs and had been working in the Peruvian embassy in Moscow for two years, disappeared in the early hours of January 1 when he exited a Moscow nightclub around 6 am. Investigative committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax the diplomat did not appear to have been killed since “no damage to the body was found”. Police launched a criminal probe into the disappearance on January 12th, with the Peruvian foreign minister calling it “a mystery and an enigma”. In Lima, the Peruvian foreign ministry said it was working “in close cooperation with Russian authorities” in the investigation.
Newsline: Peru army chief denies U.S. embassy cable about drug links
The head of Peru’s army on Monday denied having links to the cocaine trade in the world’s top coca producer after a U.S. Embassy cable said high-level corruption could be hurting President Alan Garcia’s drug war. The cable, which was released by WikiLeaks and published on Saturday by Spain’s El Pais newspaper, says Gen. Paul da Silva met in 2007 with Rolando Velasco, a fishing industry executive later arrested for trying to export 840 kg (1,852 pounds) of cocaine hidden in frozen fish. The 2009 cable indicated they met to possibly coordinate drug shipments. Da Silva, who was a regional commander at the time, told reporters on Monday the meeting was held to taste a dish made with squid and talk about a contract to supply calamari to the army. He said several other military officials attended. “This cable is defamatory and is aimed at damaging the honour of the armed forces,” Da Silva said. “I can’t close doors to people who want to meet with me. I didn’t know at the time that this Mr. Velasco was implicated in drug trafficking.” Da Silva blamed Michael McKinley, the former U.S. ambassador to Peru, for writing the “irresponsible” memo and threatened to file a lawsuit against him. The U.S. Embassy in Lima did not comment on the cable, part of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic documents WikiLeaks began publishing last month through media outlets and various websites. The United Nations said this year that Peru had overtaken Colombia as the world’s leading producer of coca leaf used to make cocaine.
Newsline: Peru opens embassy in Saudi Arabia
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry announced the opening of an embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh. According to a document signed by President Alan Garcia and Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde and published in state newspaper El Peruano, the opening of the embassy is part of Peru’s expansion of ties with the Arab world. Saudi Arabia is an important political and economic center in order to expand ties to other regions, says the document. Peruvian–Saudi Arabian relations have gained momentum thanks to the efforts made by both countries and their interest to develop and strengthen friendly and cooperative bilateral ties. The Third Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA) will be held in Lima in February 2011.
http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?Id=0fruR03eUhI=
