A young Venezuelan woman is threatened for denouncing environmental problems - Other Cities - Colombia

For having denounced an environmental crisis registered in a neighborhood of the city of Riohacha, which has been affecting the inhabitants for several years, a Venezuelan migrant received death threats.

María Pineda, who has been living in the El Manantial neighborhood for five years, through a video published on her social networks denounced on September 5 an environmental problem.

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Rainwater stagnation

which is generated by the rainwater stagnation on Carrera 27 with Calle 15, forming an immense lagoon that affects mobility, preventing free vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Two days after the complaint, Mayor José Ramiro Bermúdez and the secretary of works visited this sector to review this situation and announced the completion of a project that is in the pre-contractual stage.

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Five months later, and given that the waters changed color, becoming an intense green, ‘Chan chan’, as the victim is known, decided to make another video on February 5 recalling the situation and the visit by the authorities, assuring that the cases of dengue increased and the issue remained the same.

She immediately received a text message “Chan, chan, stop making videos to stir up the hornet’s nest here in Riohacha Veneca… solve your country, go with your girlfriend, something could happen to you, take care of yourself in the motico.”

They offered money for an attempt on his life.

I have been creating the same social content for five years about what is wrong in Riohacha and how we can improve. But this year that we are precisely in politics was that this affected someone

Through his Facebook account, he made the threat public “Who is it that one holds responsible when they threaten him? I cannot believe that because she is a veneca, that Riohacha hurts, she has to receive these types of threats.”

What he did not imagine was that someone close to him warned him to be careful, already in another sector of the city, in the Dividivi neighborhood, they were offering a good sum of money for an attempt on his life, “rumors from the neighborhood 10 bars for shooting you”, points to the message.

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This Thursday he will file the complaints with the competent authorities, noting that he does not know who is behind these threats.

“I have been creating the same social content for five years about what is wrong in Riohacha and how we can improve. But this year that we are precisely in politics was that this affected someone, ”he maintains.

Mayor rejects threats

We had closed the budget, we did not have the powers of the council to be able to contract this type of works and we are ready to comply with the legal procedures and contract complementary works…

Regarding the threats, Mayor José Ramiro Bermúdez assured that “we reject any act of violence and threat against the life of Mrs. María Pineda.”

He explained that the contract was awarded for 150 million pesos, but on the other hand there is a problem with a channel that must be cleaned and requires sedimentation work in about three blocks, so they decided to do a single job, so as not to move the problem to another sector.

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“We had just closed the budget, we did not have the powers of the council to be able to contract this type of works and we are ready to comply with the legal procedures and contract the complementary works in the other sector, that is why we have not been able to move forward,” said the president.

Bermúdez assures that in approximately one month the issue of hiring could be resolved to start the execution of these works, if the legal terms allow it.

Eliana Mejia Ospino
Special for Weather
Riohacha

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Mother threatened after act of military pardon for 'false positive' - Cali - Colombia

The Third Army Brigade took over the act by order of the Council of Statealthough the crimes occurred in the territory of Caldes, What extrajudicial executions in the Eighth Brigade area.

Alfamir Castillo, mother of one of the two youths killed in those events, attended the event, but received written intimidation a day later.

(Read in context: Attack against Alfamir Castillo, victim of false positives )

The story began at 1:00 a.m. on the 8th of February 2008 when the Army reported a alleged combat in the village of Java, in the rural jurisdiction of Manizalescapital of Caldas.

In the alleged exchange shots died Darbey Mosquera Castillo and Alex Hernando Ramírez Hurtado.

Later it became known that José Didier Marín Camacho escaped death that day, when the soldier’s rifle jammed.

Initially, the bodies were reported as unidentified. What was discovered is that the victims were tricked into the territory of Caldas.

#URGENT at the same time that in Pradera an act of excuses is carried out ordered by @councilofstate Due to the extrajudicial execution of Darbey, son of Alfamir Castillo, this threat arrives at the courtier women’s workshop house against her. Keep doubting where and who it comes from! pic.twitter.com/31zQjmFkNT

— dhColombia (@dhColombia) February 8, 2022

The mourners did not stay with the official version and asked that the circumstances of their deaths be investigated.

The Prosecutor’s Office began to investigate whether the crimes were committed under the guidelines of reporting casualties to obtain congratulations and permits by showing positive results in combat.

Threat against Alfamir Castillo

Alfamir Castillo, the mother of Darbey Mosquera, stood up for her son and began to speak out among the mothers who have suffered “false positives.”

She has been the object of harassment and on October 17, 2012 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures and has had support from the National Protection Unit.

the proxies de Castillo and a son have also been the object of threats, for which precautionary measures were also ordered.

On Friday, January 11, 2019at 8:00 at night, on the road to Palmira to Pradera, (Valle del Cauca), the vehicle of the scheme assigned by the UNP, received 3 impacts fired by the grill of a motorcycle.

The UN urged the Attorney General’s Office to urgently investigate the motives for this attack. So far no catches.

The threats intensified when Castillo was recognized as a victim in the submission process of retired General Mario Montoya before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).

General William Fernando Prieto Ruiz, commander of the Third Brigade, apologized on behalf of the Army for the false positive in Caldas.

On Monday, in the center of the municipality of Pradera, where the victims were from, the National Army apologized for the extrajudicial executions, as ordered by the Council of State.

“Public excuses, an obligation that we have, that the Law demands and it is a ruling, part of that way of compensating things,” said the General William Fernando Prieto Ruiz, commander of the Third Brigade of the National Army.

Castillo said that “the authorities owe us justice and truth, we still ask ourselves, who gave the order and the truth for the people.”

After the act, mourners and relatives went to the House of the Cane Cutter Womenwhere when opening the door a sheet of paper fell out, according to a lawyer.

“There is no debt that is not paid. So we invite you to the funeral of this leader who was called Alfamir Castillo in life. Do not ask for our commander’s head anymore because the one that is going to fall is his. It seems that he thinks we are playing ”, says the message.

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Snow Warnings as Winter Olympics Threatened by Climate Change

LONDON — 

The future of the Winter Olympics is under threat because of climate change, according to a new report from Britain’s Loughborough University.

The warning comes as Beijing prepares for the opening of the 2022 Games this week, the first time a city has hosted both the summer and winter events. It also will be the first Winter Olympics to use almost 100% artificial snow, with more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-cannons working to cover the slopes.

Artificial snow

Zhangjiakou, which lies 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing, will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Despite the bitter cold – temperatures reached minus 17 degrees Celsius this week – it rarely snows.

Olympic site manager Jacques Fournier is in charge of the snow machines. “Here has no humidity, and it’s very dry, and there’s a lot of wind,” Fournier told Reuters. “So, in that kind of condition, the goal and the target is really to make the snow compact, and to prepare rapidly to not let it [be blown away] by the wind.”

Inherent dangers

Winter resorts have increasingly turned to artificial snow to make up for a lack of natural snowfall. However, a new report from Britain’s Loughborough University warns that athletes’ safety could be at risk.

“In sports like biathlon or cross-country skiing or any of the freestyle events where an athlete is flinging themself into the air flipping around and falling, you would want the surface to be a little softer. And the problem with artificial snow is that it’s about 70% ice, compared to natural snow which is about 30% ice. And so, the surface is much, much harder,” said report co-author Madeleine Orr, a sports ecologist at Loughborough University, in an interview with VOA.

Snow-melt

American snowboarder Taylor Gold is preparing for Beijing. During his first Winter Olympics, in the Russian resort of Sochi in 2014, he recalls the halfpipe melting.

“They were spraying some chemicals on it to try to get it to stay in shape. But if you go back and watch that event, it’s clear, it was really warm. It was not ideal for snowboarding,” Gold recently told Associated Press. “It makes me sad that we need so much man-made snow to sustain winter sports,” he added.

A worker shovels snow in preparation for freestyle ski and snowboard events at Genting Snow Park prior to the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Zhangjiakou, China, Jan. 31, 2022.

American downhill skier Lindsey Vonn, who won three Olympic golds until her retirement in 2019, has trained and competed all over the world. She says snow is becoming harder to track down. “You go to South America, where we use to train every summer, August, September. They’ve had no snow for several years in a row, like none,” Vonn told the Associated Press.

Unsuitable climates

Critics say the climates of both Sochi and Beijing are unsuitable to host the Winter Olympics. But even high altitude, mountain ski resorts that have traditionally hosted the games are at risk because of climate change.

“The northeast of the U.S. for example, and eastern Canada – we are losing significant amounts of snow there,” says Orr. “And then in places like the Rockies and the [European] Alps, we just don’t have quite as much as we used to. So, the challenge moving forward is going to be where can we put these events. And with the Winter Olympics, we’re already kind of there.”

Environmental damage

Orr says artificial snow also causes environmental damage.

“When you put artificial snow in a place that doesn’t have any natural snow at all, like Beijing, you’re putting a whole lot of water into a place where that soil and those plants are not expecting it. And previous research has shown that that can be damaging to local wildlife.”

“But we also expect that when you’re creating that much snow, the energy usage is extraordinary. The amount of water is extraordinary. In this Olympics we’re expecting 49 million gallons [185 million liters] of water to be used – and that’s if things go well. So, if they have a few hot days and need to create a little bit of extra snow to make up and compensate for some melt during the games, we could see that number rise above 50 million gallons [189 million liters],” Orr told VOA.

Carbon-neutral Olympics

The Chinese organizers insist the games will be carbon neutral. All venues are expected to be powered by renewable energy. Ice rinks will use natural CO2 technology for cooling, instead of ozone-damaging hydrofluorocarbons. The organizers say the latest snow machines use 20% less water.

Some athletes prefer artificial snow. “The snow is actually amazing, the man-made stuff. I think because of how cold it is, you have to be really aggressive with how you ride, but you just have to adapt,” said Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, a downhill snowboarder competing for New Zealand at the Beijing Games.

Olympic organizers also will have to adapt. The Loughborough University report warns that by 2050, fewer than half of the resorts that have hosted the Winter Olympics until now will have viable snowfall.

Artificial Snow Warnings as Beijing Olympics Threatened by Climate Change

As Beijing prepares for the opening of the Winter Olympics this week, scientists are warning that the future of the games is under threat – because of climate change. Henry Ridgwell reports. Producer: Marcus Harton