Former president of the Supreme Court of México, Genaro Góngora (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The former president of the Supreme Court of México, Genaro Góngora, admitted he has used his influence to imprison his ex-wife, Ana María Orozco, on fraud charges.

Góngora accused Orozco of acquiring a property with alimony money, but instead of putting the property in their children’s name, she put it in her name. Her lawyer had argued that ”legally is impossible to put a property in the name of two minors.”

And now, in a letter, former judge admitted: “I let my own emotions and confusions influence my work.”

The case had hit the headlines for Góngora’s treatment of his former wife and their two autistic children. The retired judge has a pension of around US$30,000 a month, and in their divorce settlement, he was supposed to pay a third of that amount for the support of his ex-wife and two autistic children. But Góngora managed to reduce the payment to just  US$4,000 a month, by claiming that his ex-wife has lived in a lower middle class district, so she did not require a monthly cheque of US$10,000.

According to the ex-wife’s lawyer, the 75-year-old also argued that “because of their age and disease, the kids are unable to have fun.”

Góngora has since publicly apologised to his ex-wife and both children, David and Ulises.

Góngora was well-known as an impeccable judge throughout his career, up to the point he was named the president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in 1999. He served as president until 2003, but remained a member of the highest judicial organ in México for another six years.

“The inspiration behind Yo No Fui came from an encounter in Ezeiza prison. I was holding poetry seminars whilst working at the criminal courts when I met a Russian girl. It was a powerful experience. So much so that I visited her regularly until her year of freedom, and I believe what happened there was not isolated, but played a defining role in what was to happen next.” Maria Medrano – Founder

Yo No Fui members represent their work at the Indy’s Women’s Event (Photo: Terra Borody)

Yo No Fui is a pioneering and life-changing organisation that strives to provide educational, artistic, and social projects for the female inmates of Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza prison, and upon release, guide these women through their reintegration into society. The non-profit aims to alter preconceptions of female inmates, and use their powerful collective to create social transformation and growth for women deprived of liberty and support.

These women represent a section of society often overlooked by other members of the public, the state, and non-profit organisations, and a section that Yo No Fui decided to directly aid and influence in 2002. The project began as a series of poetry workshops and seminars at the prison, and grew to become a centre of education, social projects, and creative workshops for hundreds of women.

Handmade crafts by Yo No Fui members (Photo: Terra Borody)

Current projects include an arts and crafts programme – the results of which are regularly sold at events and markets around the city – which generates an income for inmates, as well as an employment prospects programme, which helps women, who have often never experienced steady long-term employment, gain the skills necessary for applications, interviews, and eventual employment upon release. Additionally, women are able to focus on building and developing skills for future employment with workshops ranging from textile design, carpentry, journalism, and photography.

The central objective of the organisation is to bring to light the needs of women deprived of freedom and recognition, whilst promoting human rights and strengthening women who can go on to transform the society in which we live. Their ethos lies in the concept that the transition between life on the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ – a process featuring little or no accompaniment of state public policy  – can be influenced by the installation of free access to education and spaces of artistic creation.

Yo No Fui is proactive in the promotion and construction of critical and educational spaces that aid individual and social transformation, and enable marginalised individuals to participate in activities both inside and outside the prison. Dedicated volunteers work directly with female inmates, as well as former inmates and family members, striving to give a voice to the voiceless, and eventually create a greater acceptance of differences and of the different circumstances of each human being.

Founder María Medrano spoke of her hopes and plans for the future of Yo No Fui, where they are currently “working closely with various government departments in order to see our long term plan come into fruition. Our aim is to see the installation of further creative and educational centres within more prisons.”

To learn more about Yo No Fui’s visionary initiatives and support the organisation, click here.

Twelve former Cuban officials, including some high-ranking government employees, have been jailed for corruption in their involvement with a nickel mining company.

According to the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the defendants committed their crimes under an expansion project at Moa nickel mine’s Pedro Soto Alba processing plant.

The prison terms range from four to 12 years.

The dozen defendants worked for the ministry of basic industry, state-run nickel producing company Cubaniquel, and Empresa Moa Nickel SA.

Alfredo Zayas, who led Cubaniquel and served as a deputy minister from 2004 to 2007, was given the longest sentence of 12 years. Former deputy minister Ricardo Gonzalez, who chaired the board of directors, was sentenced to ten years. Antonio Orizon de los Reyes, deputy minister from 1980 to 1999 and who was on the project’s committee, was given the next longest term of eight-years. The remaining defendants were jailed between four and seven years.

The convicted were found guilty by a court in Holguin of corruption during the awarding of contracts and implementation of the project to expand the Moa nickel and cobalt mine. Moa is jointly owned by Cuban and Canadian mining company Sherritt International Corp.

The court took into account “the gravity of these acts and their harmful consequences in one of the strategic activities for the nation’s economy and the conduct of the accused, characterized by the loss of ethical values and deception,” the bulletin read.

Nickel production is one of Cuba’s main sources of foreign income. In April a senior government official said the mineral accounted for 30 per cent of exports in 2011. According to the Canadian Press, with this figure nickel revenues would be put at US$1.8bn for the year based on overall export figures.

President Raúl Castro has repeatedly spoken out about corruption since his inauguration in 2008. He has said that corruption posses the most serious threat to his country’s socialist system.

Venezuelan police forces are attempting to retake the prison in Caracas that was taken over yesterday by a group of prisoners refusing to leave the jail after the government recently ordered its closure.

Inmates who revolted in La Planta jail, located in the capital city Caracas, armed themselves and fired bullets at  police squads, forcing the authorities to deploy more security forces to protect the area. The local Prison Affairs Minister, Iris Varela, dismissed claims that police will try to force their way in over the next few hours.

The minister explained that within the prison there are “prisoners of prisoners” and that the majority “is subject to a very violent and small group that will not accept any reasoning.”

A few months ago, a similar clash in a prison left 20 people dead, after the military decided to break-in.

The latest incident began after the authorities announced the shutdown of the jail and the imminent transfer of some of the prisoners.

The crisis erupted in the detention plant three weeks ago, when prisoners and armed rebels opened fire against the authorities, rejecting any transfer plan and demanding that the government provide them with a better solution.

At the same time, hundreds of women are asleep in tents or under cardboard in the outskirts of the prison, waiting to hear from their relatives or husbands after jail visits were suspended.

According to humanitarian organisations, around 300 prisoners die every year in Venezuelan prisons as a result of violence or severe overcrowding. La Planta prison was built in 1964 to house 350 inmates, but nearly 2,500 prisoners are effectively locked in. The government estimates that there are around 50,000 inmates in state prisons across Venezuela, even though the existing infrastructure can only hold about 14,000 of them.

One prisoner was killed and five guards taken hostage in a siege at Almafuerte prison in Mendoza on Saturday. The siege lasted for seven hours at the jail, which is located 40km from the provincial capital.

According to official reports, inmates managed to take the wing after prisoner Diego Casanova faked convulsions and guards opened his cell to help him. Casanova’s two cellmates overcame the guards and arrested the keys off them.

Once in control of the sector, they opened the cell of one of the inmates and stabbed him 11 times. The victim, 35-year-old Darío Vega, had been serving an 18 year sentence for rape and sexual abuse of minors, was stabbed to death.

“The bad relationship between the murdered inmate and those who started the revolt was known and had been going on for various months,” said David Mangiafico, of the subsecretary of justice.

But the victim’s family do not believe his death was a ‘settling of accounts’ between prisoners, as during visiting times on Friday his sister had been insulted by prison guards. They suspect the guards themselves were involved in Vega’s death.

Conditions in prisons in Argentina are notoriously bad, with a prisoner dying on average every two days, according to Amnesty International.

Former Peruvian president, Alberto Fujimori admitted on Monday to actions of embezzlement involving payment of US$15m to his ex-chief of intelligence, Vladimiro Montesinos. Although serving 25 years for human rights violations, Fujimori says he does not want the jail time that comes with admitting to the charges.

“I express limited or relative agreement with the accusation. I only accept the facts, I do not accept the criminal responsibility, the punishment or the civil reparations,” Fujimori said at his trial.

Fujimori is serving jail time for his involvement in the murders and kidnappings in Barrios Altos in 1991, which were carried out by the Colina death squad. At the time, under his command, the Peruvian army was trying to end the reign of terror of Shining Path, a Maoist guerilla movement. The violent struggle, which left thousands dead, ended in 1992 after the capture of the movement’s leader, Abimael Guzman.

The prosecution had asked for an additional eight years of jail time and US$660,000 for reparations. In the Peruvian court system, the maximum jail sentence for a person is 25 years, so in either case Fujimori would not have to serve extra time.

At the trial, reports state that Fujimori was at times dozing off. At 70 years old, Fujimori is reported to be suffering many ailments. At one point he had to ask for a short recess before continuing the trial.

He fled to Tokyo in 2005 where he has dual citizenship and then later went to Chile where he was finally extradited and sent to Peru in 2007 for two counts of human rights violations and five counts of corruption charges.

In 2000 Montesinos had also fled the country after video tapes were revealed of him bribing an elected congressman. He was then captured in 2001 in Venezuela and brought to trial. He is currently serving a 20 year sentence.

A scheme to deliver mobile telephones to prisoners in a model helicopter was thwarted yesterday in the São Paulo region of Brazil. Suspicions were raised at the maximum security Presidente Vencislau prison, some 600km southwest of the city of São Paulo, when officers on patrol noticed a parked car in the prison’s environs. Four people have been arrested and the metre-long helicopter, a model from Taiwanese brand Align, with an internet retail value of around US$500, was confiscated.

The Associated Press reports that the ingenious scheme involved placing nine mobile phones, wrapped in a disposable nappy, in a basket attached to the helicopter. Five more cellular phones are also said to have been found in the boot of the vehicle which prompted suspicions.

One of the four connected with the plot is a seventeen year old male who confessed to driving the helicopter via remote control. He admitted that he had been paid 10,000 reales (around US$5,000) to rent the car and buy the phones. He was due to receive a similar amount again if he managed to fly the small craft over the five metre high prison walls and into one of the open areas, where they would be collected by prisoners.

In March of last year, São Paulo police intercepted two carrier pigeons who had been trained to fly over the walls of a Sorocaba prison with small bags attached to their legs. Officials attracted the birds with food and found that the bags contained the component parts of a small mobile phone.

Brazilian police sergeant Ricardo Jock was today quoted in The Washington Post, explaining: “The cell phones were obviously for jailed gang leaders who would use them to coordinate bank robberies and kidnappings and set up drug deals.”

It is thought that São Paulo’s notorious ‘First Capital Command’ prison gang use contraband mobile phones to coordinate attacks in the outside world. They have been blamed for a wave of assaults on police, banks and buses, which left more than 200 dead in 2006.