World

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — On a normally quiet street, two men lie dead surrounded by blood and bullet casings, the latest victims of a series of executions that have become a daily affair in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil.

Police reports and security camera footage seen by AFP reveal a group of men chatting on a street corner when a white van, door flung open, swings around the corner, and gunmen jump out and open fire.

“It was raining bullets,” a neighbour told an AFP team that arrived after the Sunday murder on Machala Avenue.

The previous day, elsewhere, “two people were killed in a shooting, including a policeman”, said military officer Alex Merchan, running a checkpoint with a handful of soldiers in Duran, across the river from Guayaquil.

However, security forces describe the weekend as relatively calm compared to most in the city dubbed “Guayakill” on social media. One weekend in September saw 30 murders, another, 24.

The explosion of insecurity in Ecuador — once a haven of peace wedged between cocaine-producing nations Colombia and Peru — is the main concern as voters head to the polls Sunday in a run-off election.

Guayaquil, a city of almost three million people, has borne the brunt of Ecuador’s descent into drug violence, with foreign cartels using the port to flood the world with cocaine from its neighbours.

The business has brought with it often barbaric bloodshed.

Hundreds have been killed in prison gang fights, the streets have been hit by car bombs and kidnapping victims have had their fingers cut off to boost ransom demands.

According to Ecuador’s Observatory of Organised Crime, there were almost 1,500 murders in the first six months of 2023, almost double that in the same period of 2022.

It was on a pedestrian bridge crossing the ten-lane highway close to where Merchan and a handful of soldiers have set up their checkpoint that two decapitated bodies were left dangling from a bridge in February.

His men search passing vehicles for drugs, weapons and explosives, in what he calls a “game of cat and mouse” with criminals.

Guayaquil offers a contrasting landscape between gleaming modern buildings and luxurious villas, ensconced behind barbed wire, and crime-ridden poor neighbourhoods.

“Crime here is now a mixture of petty crime, drug trafficking, and mafia” activities, said a local journalist speaking on condition of anonymity of a violence that was almost “non-existent two years ago”.

“The killers strike anywhere and at any time. There are no real rules.”

Victims are almost always men, generally recently released from prison, and killers often “teenagers”, said Merchan.

‘That’s my husband’ 

At stake is the control of territory and drug trafficking routes.

According to the local news site Primicias, it is a question of controlling “the departure of drugs through the Guayas River towards the Gulf of Guayaquil”.

Gangs involved include the country’s most powerful criminal group, Los Choneros, and a web of rivals such as the Lagartos, Tiguerones, and Aguilas.

The gangs have complex alliances with Mexican groups like the Sinaloa cartel, Colombian guerilla groups, and Balkan traffickers.

The battle for control largely plays out in the immense prison complex on the outskirts of the city, where Choneros leader Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, has been held since 2011.

However, the innocent get caught in the crossfire, like one of the victims on Machala Avenue who police described as “collateral damage” in whatever score was being settled.

“That’s my husband,” cried a woman throwing herself on his body, covered in a blue sheet.

OSLO — Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg on Thursday joined indigenous Sami activists protesting in Oslo against wind turbines still operating on reindeer herding land two years after a court ruled them illegal.

On October 11, 2021, Norway’s supreme court found that two wind farms in the Fosen region of western Norway — on land used by Sami reindeer herders — violated the rights of the indigenous people, guaranteed by the UN, to practise their culture of reindeer husbandry.

Two years later, the 151 turbines are still operating.

To mark the anniversary on Wednesday, dozens of environment activists and Samis began a series of protests in the Norwegian capital expected to last several days, demanding the demolition of the turbines.

On Thursday, Thunberg joined the activists to block the entrance to the headquarters of state-owned energy group Statkraft, which operates 80 of the 151 turbines in Fosen.

“It’s important to show solidarity when human rights violations are taking place especially in Scandinavia against the Sami people,” Thunberg told AFP on Wednesday.

She was speaking just after a court in the southern Swedish town of Malmo had fined her for public disobedience at a July 24th protest in Malmo.

“All of us who can be there and show our support should,” she said.

On Thursday, she sat on the ground next to activists clad in traditional Sami clothing at the foot of a lavvu, a Sami tent erected outside the Statkraft entrance.

Thunberg had already taken part in a demonstration in February to mark the 500th day since the supreme court ruling.

“Greta Thunberg is an important ally supporting our cause,” Sami activist and artist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen said.

Demolition ‘excluded’ 

While the supreme court found that the expropriation and operating permits for the construction of the turbines were invalid, it gave no guidance on what should be done with the turbines, which were already in operation.

Norway’s government has apologised to Sami reindeer herding families and recognised that their human rights have been violated.

It has launched a mediation process to try to find a solution enabling both the herders and wind farms to continue their activities.

Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said Wednesday “the destruction of all wind turbines was excluded” and “not a likely outcome of either a decision-making process or a mediation process”.

The outcome could set a precedent for other infrastructure projects on the vast lands traditionally used by the Sami across Norway.

An indigenous minority of around 100,000 people spread over the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, the Sami have traditionally lived off reindeer herding and fishing.

ROME — An Italian court on Thursday handed a suspended fine of 1,000 euros to journalist Roberto Saviano for defaming Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by criticising her stance on migrants.

Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller "Gomorrah", had called the far-right leader a "bastard" on national television in December 2020, when Meloni was still in opposition.

His lawyer Antonio Nobile said he would appeal the verdict, after a trial that has sparked fears over freedom of speech in Italy.

But the fine was far less than the 10,000 euros requested by the Rome prosecutor, and the 75,000 euros in damages demanded by Meloni's lawyer.

It was also suspended, meaning it need not be paid except in the case of a repeat offence, and will not be mentioned on Saviano's criminal record, Nobile told AFP.

Speaking to reporters outside the Rome court, Saviano said Meloni's hard-right government had sought to "intimidate" him for calling out "lies" about migrants and the charity ships that rescue them in the Mediterranean.

But he added: "There is no greater honour for a writer than to see their own words brought to trial... so today I am actually proud of having done this."

In court, Meloni's lawyer, Luca Libra, had said Saviano's words were not criticism but an "insult", accusing him of using "excessive, vulgar and aggressive language".

'Dangerous warning' 

Press freedom groups had supported Saviano in a case he had described as a test of "whether or not it is possible to exercise the right of criticism" in Italy.

Sabrina Tucci of PEN International said it was "deeply disappointed" at the verdict.

"This sentence is an attack on freedom of expression which the Italian constitution and international law recognise as an inalienable human right," she said.

The fact the case was brought by the prime minister "is a dangerous warning for all writers and journalists... inviting them to measure their words, to not risk long legal battles, financial difficulties, emotional distress and imprisonment", she added.

Saviano, who lives under police protection due to threats from the mafia, had faced up to three years in jail for his comments.

Migrant shipwreck 

The case revolved around comments Saviano made on a political TV chat show following the death in a shipwreck of a six-month-old baby from Guinea.

The baby, Joseph, had been one of 111 migrants rescued by the Open Arms charity ship. He died before he could receive medical attention.

In footage shot by rescuers and shown to Saviano on the show, the baby's mother can be heard weeping "Where's my baby? Help, I lose my baby!"

Saviano blasted Meloni, who leads the post-Fascist Brothers of Italy Party, and Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigrant League Party.

"I just want to say to Melon i, and Salvini: 'You bastards! How could you?'" Saviano said on the show.

The year before, Meloni had said charity rescue ships "should be sunk", while Salvini, as interior minister that same year, blocked such vessels from docking in Italian ports.

After taking office in October 2022 on a promise to end migrant landings in Italy, Meloni's government limited the activities of charity rescue ships.

But almost 140,000 migrants have arrived this year, up from more than 74,000 in the same period last year, according to the interior ministry.

The majority are picked up by the coastguard, with around five percent rescued by NGO ships, the government says.

Salvini trial 

Salvini — now deputy prime minister in Meloni's government — has filed a separate defamation suit against Saviano for calling him the "minister of the criminal underworld" in a social media post in 2018.

The case is still ongoing, with the next hearing due on December 7.

"I will not give up against this gang," Saviano said Thursday.

PEN International called on Italy to abolish its defamation laws, saying: "Those who express their opinions on matters of public interest should not feel threatened."

Italy ranked 41st in the 2023 world press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders, up from 58th in 2022.

VIGO, Spain — Three children and an adult died when a fire ripped through a building in the northwestern port city of Vigo early on Wednesday, officials said, just 10 days after another blaze claimed 13 lives at a nightclub in southern Spain.

The fire broke out around 4:00am (02:00 GMT) on the ground floor of a building in the central As Travesas neighbourhood, Carlos Lopez, a spokesman for Vigo city hall.

There were “around 30 people inside at the time”, he added. “There were four deaths: Three minors and an adult.”

The emergency services had earlier said all four were minors.

Spanish press reports said it was a mother and three of her children.

“It’s possible some of the victims among both the dead and the injured were brothers and sisters,” said an emergency services spokesman without giving further details.

Nine people were injured in the fire, three of whom were in serious condition. One was an eight-year-old girl, officials said.

Local press reports said the father and a sister of the children who died were among the injured.

The cause was not immediately clear but the emergency services were at the scene within 10 minutes and put out the flames “within two or three minutes”, said Vigo’s head of security Patricia Rodriguez.

“The reaction was immediate but the main problem was the smoke,” she said, describing the operation as “complicated”.

Earlier media reports said it had taken three hours.

Mayor Abel Caballero announced three days of mourning in this city of nearly 300,000 people that lies on the Atlantic coast in the north-western Galicia region, just 30 kilometres north of the Portuguese border.

Galician leader Alfonso Rueda said he was “devastated” by the fire and sent his deepest condolences to the families of the victims.

The fire came just 10 days after a deadly blaze on October 1 that killed 13 people inside a nightclub in the southeastern town of Murcia.

A Spanish court has opened a manslaughter probe into the tragedy at the venue which had ignored an earlier closure order.

MONROVIA — Vote counting was under way in Liberia on Wednesday, a day after citizens voted on whether to reelect football legend George Weah, who is running for a second term as president.

Liberians enthusiastically turned out in large numbers on Tuesday to choose their president, as well as 73 representatives from the legislature's lower chamber and 15 senators.

Some 2.4 million people were registered to vote.

"On behalf of the board of commissioners and staff of the National Elections Commission, as well as the Liberian people, I declare this tally process open," chairwoman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, told international observers and journalists at the Samuel Kanyon Doe stadium in the capital Monrovia.

No major incidents have been reported. Only heavy rain disrupted voting in the southeast.

By Wednesday, the election day excitement had died down in the streets of Monrovia. People returned to work after a public holiday on election day.

Many said they were satisfied with the way the election was conducted.

"Yesterday's election was very good, people turned out to vote," said Robert Kalaplee, 29.

"I want to tell the international community to keep their eyes on us, and then they should be looking at the National Elections Commission."

He said Liberians would accept whoever wins the presidential race.

"We really appreciate yesterday and we tell God thank you for yesterday — that it was so peaceful," said 26-year-old Sarlay Slobert.

"There was no disruption; everything went on smoothly."

Results 

Browne-Lansanah warned that any results announced by radio stations, on social media or by candidates were "fake news".

She said the official results would only be announced by the NEC.

It will begin publicising partial results on Wednesday, with the final results to be announced within 15 days, she said.

Twenty candidates contested the presidential race, including incumbent Weah and his main rival, Joseph Boakai, a former vice president from 2006 to 2018.

First elected six years ago, 57-year-old Weah, an ex-footballer who became the first and only African to win the game's most prestigious individual award, the Ballon d'Or, is popular among young people.

Others, however, are disappointed with his first term, accusing him of breaking his promises.

Living conditions have not improved for many of the West African nation's poorest, and corruption levels risen.

If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, a run-off will be held in early November.

The election is the first to be held since the United Nations ended its peacekeeping mission in Liberia in 2018.

The mission was created after more than 250,000 people died in two civil wars between 1989 and 2003.

Clashes between the ruling party and opponents during the campaign left several dead and raised fears of post-election violence.

The European Union, African Union, Economic Community of West African States and United States have deployed election observers to Liberia.

It comes as democracy in West Africa is being called into question by a series of recent coups.

NAYEB RAFI, Afghanistan — Thousands of Afghans who survived a powerful earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people were bracing for a winter of homelessness on Tuesday, as rescuers made last-ditch efforts to find survivors.

Volunteers have worked with spades and pickaxes in Herat province since Saturday's deadly magnitude 6.3 quake, followed by powerful aftershocks, while others dug graves instead.

The United Nations said more than 12,000 people, from some 1,700 families, are estimated to have been affected.

It said "100 per cent" of homes were destroyed in 11 villages of Zenda Jan district.

Zareen, in the village of Nayeb Rafi, where 11 of his family members were killed in the crush of falling masonry, said aid tents would not withstand the winter storms.

"If the government doesn't take us away or help us, we will be stuck here," the man in his 70s told AFP.

 Providing shelter on a large scale will be a challenge for Afghanistan's Taliban authorities, who seized power in August 2021, and have fractious relations with international aid organisations.

"Not a single house is left, not even a room where we could stay at night," said 40-year-old Mohammad Naeem, who told AFP he lost 12 relatives including his mother.

"We can't live here anymore. You can see, our family got martyred here. How could we live here?"

In the provincial capital of Herat city, 30 kilometres southeast of the quake epicentres in hard-to-reach Zenda Jan district, Doctors Without Borders said the injured now faced a new ordeal.

“More than 340 patients discharged yesterday don’t want to leave the hospital as they have no homes to return to,” the charity said on social media site X.

Local and national officials gave conflicting counts of the number of dead and injured, but the disaster ministry has said 2,053 people died.

“We can’t give exact numbers for dead and wounded as it is in flux,” said Disaster Management Ministry spokesman Mullah Janan Sayeq.

The UN said on Tuesday the death toll stood at nearly 1,300 with nearly 500 more still missing, the majority of them women.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by deadly earthquakes, but the weekend disaster is the worst to strike the impoverished country in more than 25 years.

Taliban authorities have banned women from working for UN and non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan, making it difficult to assess family needs in deeply conservative parts of the country.

Amnesty International said the Taliban government should ensure that rescue and relief efforts are carried out “without discrimination” and guarantee unrestricted access to the affected regions to humanitarian agencies.

“It is critical that all assistance meets the needs of the most at-risk groups who often face compounded challenges in crisis situations, including women,” said South Asia regional researcher Zaman Sultani.

Most rural homes in Afghanistan are made of mud and built around wooden support poles, with little in the way of modern steel reinforcement.

Multigenerational extended families generally live under the same roof, meaning disasters such as Saturday’s quake can devastate local communities.

Afghanistan is already suffering a dire humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban’s return to power.

 Save the Children called the quakes “a crisis on top of a crisis”.

Herat province, home to around 1.9 million people on the border with Iran, has also been hit by a years-long drought that has crippled many hardscrabble farm communities.

The country is prone to quakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless in June last year after a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the impoverished province of Paktika.

More than 4,000 people died in a magnitude 6.5 quake that struck Takhar province in 1998.