US sends in FBI, offers $5 million reward to catch Ecuador assassin
ECUADOR: After the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on August 20, American FBI agents traveled to the South American country at the request of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, where they met with the State Attorney General's Office and National Police.
The United States offered a $5 million reward for information leading to capture of those involved in the assassination, and later through the Organized Crime Rewards Program the U.S. added a second reward of $1 million.
Apparently upset at the removal of his bitter political rival and the difficulty in identifying those guilty, President Lasso will in turn remove some officials from their position for negligence in guarding the imprisoned suspects, six of whom who were murdered in one day.
Meanwhile, Ecuador’s Health Ministry has produced their contracts to purchase COVID-19 vaccines, after stonewalling for seven months in an ongoing court battle. Citizens filed a lawsuit against the Health Ministry to Access Public Information and the judge’s ruling compelled them to present the documents.
Ecuador’s Health Ministry and its representative Dr. Jose Ruales, had signed contracts with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Cansino, and Sinovac. They repeatedly refused to deliver the required information, claiming they had signed confidentiality clauses with the pharmaceutical companies.
Attorney William Sanchez said: "These contracts verify that none of the pharmaceutical companies has offered compensation for injuries caused to victims of side effects, or for collateral damage.”
Engineer Glenda Garcia responded: “We’ve verified that the Health Ministry tried to hide information by first saying that they had not signed direct contracts, and then admitting that they did.”
Dr. Mauricio Quiñonez commented: “Some of the purchases were made through the GABI foundation, whose main partner is the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the largest beneficiaries.”
Journalist Eduardo Barba explained: “The Health Ministry did not completely deliver the information, since it only presented contracts until September 2021, when what should have been delivered to the judge was until August 2022.”
Dr. Rafael Morales concluded: “The Health Ministry also did not provide information on the sequencing of the genome of the alleged COVID-19 virus; they want to play with us by saying on the one hand that there’s information from China - without being able to point to it - and on the other hand by providing documents that refer to something other than what was requested.”
BRAZIL: 55 municipalities have declared state of emergency due to more than 1,600 fires raging in Brazil’s Amazon area.
The Environment Ministry says the fires are caused by deforestation, the El Niño phenomenon, and “climate change,” while the government blames farmers.
However, Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva last week approved the national oil company Petrobras to search for oil in the Potiguar Basin, promising resources for health, education, and development.
CHILE: President Gabriel Boric traveled this week to China – the country's largest trading partner – to meet with communist President Xi Jinping and other CCP leaders.
The president reportedly stated that one of the issues to be discussed would be “human rights.” China’s ambassador to Chile said: “Both China and Chile are dedicated to respecting the sovereignty of all countries and opposing interference in the internal affairs of other countries. China is willing to have dialogues and cooperation and learn mutually with all countries, including Chile, regarding human rights, always on the basis of equality and mutual respect.”
During his visit to Beijing, Boric announced China would invest $233,187,425 in the Chinese company Tsingshan Holding Group, to build a plant in Chile that will produce lithium batteries, to be launched in 2025. He also met with representatives of 36 Chinese companies, including Huawei and Sinovac Biotech.
During his speech, Boric invited other countries to invest in Chile “because this is a serious, responsible country where the rules of the game are respected.”
In other lithium battery news from Latin America, ARGENTINA has the first lithium battery plant to “meet the objectives of energy transition and sustainable development,” of which lithium is a key element. The plant can produce the equivalent of 1,000 batteries annually to “store renewable energy.”
The president of YPF Tecnología (Y-TEC) Roberto Salvarezza said “There is a really interesting future for batteries. And later it will be vital for electric vehicles, which have not yet penetrated Latin America with the intensity with which they are already present in China, the United States, or the European Union."
