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Chavez Renames World's Tallest Waterfall

Andres — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:48:53 +0000

President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that the world’s tallest waterfall has been called Angel Falls too long and should revert to its original indigenous name instead of commemorating the U.S. pilot who spotted it in 1933.

He called for renaming the Venezuelan falls Kerepakupai-Meru, saying during his weekly television program that Indians had a name for the majestic waterfall long before adventurer Jimmie Angel flew over it.

How can Venezuelans could accept the idea that “the highest waterfall in the world was discovered by a man who came from the United States in a plane?” Chavez asked.

“We should change that name, right? With all respect to that man who came, who saw it.”

He initially said the name should be Churun-Meru, but then corrected himself after receiving a note from his daughter Maria pointing out that the Pemon Indian name of the waterfall is Kerepakupai-Meru.

“That’s the name ... the name of the Indians,” Chavez said.

Guatemalan funeral homes compete for corpses

Andres — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:41:28 +0000

They’re called “calaqueros” — skullmongers — and they make a living off Guatemala City’s infamously high murder rate.

They chase ambulances, wait outside morgues or speed to crime scenes, trying to be the first to reach family members of the dead and sell their coffin-wake-funeral packages for as little as $150.

These mobile morticians constitute a completely unregulated — and growing — business that caters to inner city poor.

Competition is fierce. Some even pay police and firefighters to tip them off when a murder happens.

They offer everything from embalming to help with the red tape of acquiring a death certificate or burial permit.

And they operate from any location.

One funeral home is run out of a former mechanics garage. Caskets are s

Brazil Police Use Press Coverage as Green Light to Kill,Invade Houses in Rio

Andres — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:05:56 +0000

A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.

Police response to the attack has been predictable: more repressive, violent force in the favelas (shantytowns). In this war between the police and the drug traffickers, 24 people have been killed. Among the dead are police, drug traffickers, and, as the city government has just admitted, three innocent bystanders.