How did he die? Brazil's former president exhumed

November 14, 2013 -- Updated 1937 GMT (0337 HKT)

The remains of Brazil's ousted President Joao Goulart arrive to Brazil, Thursday, November 14.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The remains of former Brazilian President Joao Goulart are being studied
• There are suspicions about how he really died
• He was given full state honors at a ceremony Thursday
• Other Latin American leaders have also been exhumed for similar reasons

(CNN) -- Full funerary state honors were bestowed upon former Brazilian President Joao Goulart for the first time Thursday, nearly 37 years after his death.

Goulart, who was president from 1961-1964, was deposed in a coup and died in exile. The ceremony in the Brazilian capital provided the proper official ceremony to which deceased heads of state in Brazil are entitled.

President Dilma Rousseff placed flowers on top of the casket and presented the flag that had been draped over it to Goulart's widow.

But the remains of the former president were exhumed for purposes other than a funeral ceremony.

Goulart died in exile in Argentina of a heart attack in 1976, but there have long been suspicions that he was murdered. Poisoned, to be exact.

The former president's body was exhumed so that investigators in Brazil and abroad can study the remains in hopes of clarifying how he died.

"It is Brazil's duty to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of President Joao Goulart," said Maria do Rosario, Brazil's secretariat of human rights.

Other South American leaders have recently been exhumed for similar investigations.

In 2011, the remains of former Chilean President Salvador Allende were disinterred over questions about his death. A court studied the results and ruled that Allende indeed had committed suicide.

In Venezuela, investigators studied the remains of revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar, but were unable to determine the cause of his death. They did, however, recreate a 3-D image of his face.

According to the Brazilian government, there are suspicions that Goulart was poisoned on orders of the Brazilian military government with the help of the Uruguayan military through Operation Condor, an alliance between the military dictatorships in the Southern Cone at the time.

Last year, the media reported on intelligence documents that showed that the military government spied on Goulart even after he left the country.

After being ousted from the presidency, Goulart went to Uruguay, and later Argentina.

The first requests to have the former president's remains exhumed came from his family in 2007, the government said in a news release. The request received the backing of the human rights secretariat in 2011, and the exhumation was finally given the green light in 2012.

The intent is to combine the forensic analysis with testimonies and government documents to paint a complete picture surrounding his death.

But on Thursday, it was a moment of honor and ceremony for the president who was popularly known as "Jango."

In addition to Rousseff, three former presidents were also in attendance.

Another black eye for Brazil ahead of World Cup as footballers protest

November 15, 2013 -- Updated 1638 GMT (0038 HKT)

Brazilian footballers protested Wednesday because they want, among other things, a better schedule.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Brazilian footballers cross their arms in games to protest against their confederation
• The players want changes made, including more vacation time and fewer games
• If their demands aren't met, they say "drastic measures" could be taken
• The protests are the latest black eye for the country that hosts next year's World Cup

(CNN) -- Less than a year before it stages the World Cup, Brazil is once again in the news for the wrong reasons.

Brazilian football players protested Wednesday and said they could take more action -- possibly "drastic measures" -- if their confederation doesn't make changes to the country's overcrowded calendar.

They want, among other things, more vacation time, longer preseasons, fewer games and a bigger voice in decision making.

In some matches, the players crossed their arms before the opening whistle. In others they did so after the whistle blew.

And in some instances, they passed the ball from one end of the field to the other after the referees threatened to give players yellow cards.

Also in a game, players from both sides unfurled a banner in the middle of the pitch while the national anthem played. It read: "For a football that is better for everyone."

In a statement, Common Sense F.C. -- not a club but a movement symbolizing the changes the players want -- said on its Facebook page: "If there are attempts to prevent players from expressing themselves in a peaceful way, drastic measures will be taken.

"We expect an official position followed by moves that will benefit Brazilian football."

According to Brazilian media, the future measures could include players crossing their arms for a longer period of time, wearing red clown noses or even halting a game.

There was no official reaction on Friday, which is a national holiday in Brazil.

What's behind attack on Salvadoran human rights group?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Attackers stole computers and burned files at a human rights organization
• The group's mission is to find children who disappeared during civil war
• Another human rights office was closed recently
• Some wonder if there is a connection with a debate over amnesty law

San Salvador, El Salvador (CNN) -- In recent weeks, the offices of one human rights group in El Salvador was attacked and another shuttered.

These events, some fear, may be connected to a recent Supreme Court decision to review the validity of an amnesty law that has been in the books since the end of the country's civil war.

If the court were to overturn the amnesty law, military officers and others could face charges for atrocities committed during the 1980-1992 civil war.

In the wake of the review, two human rights groups who possess and handle civil war-era documents have suffered severe setbacks.

This week, three armed men attacked the offices of the Pro-Search Association of Disappeared Children, a group dedicated to locating the children who disappeared during the war.

In the predawn attack, the gunmen tied up a driver, a guard and an employee who were at the office, according to an account on the organization's website.

The intruders seemed to know what they were looking for, as they stole computers with sensitive data and DNA samples used in their investigations. Then, they torched the rest of the files.

"First of all, I think this is sabotage" said Ester Alvarenga, the group's director.

The stolen or destroyed items included documents and files of parents looking for their children, she said. The destruction of the files could put some judicial actions at risk, she added.

The group has solved 387 cases of about 925 investigations of children who disappeared during the civil war. Many ended up being adopted abroad.

"I don't think a political motive can be ruled out," David Morales, a prosecutor in the human rights division, said.

The attack on the Pro-Seach Association follows the closure of another important human rights office.

The Tutela Legal is an organization started by the Catholic church during the civil war to investigate massacres and other human rights violations during that period.

The church suddenly announced that it was closing the Tutela Legal, a move that followed the announcement of the Supreme Court review of the amnesty law.

The reason for the closure, ostensibly, is that "irregularities" were discovered among the office's personnel. But like with the attack against the Pro-Seach Association, observers wonder if there is a connection.

Amid concerns that the group's 50,000 civil war-era files could become inaccessible, the prosecutor's office ordered that the documents be guarded in place.

"We are going to inventory all of the files and they will remain under guard here, as they could help us with investigations that are ongoing," said Julio Arriaza, of the prosecutor's office.

The government is welcome to verify that the files are still there, Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar said, but it cannot remove them.

The Washington Office on Latin America, a US-based non-governmental organization, is among the groups concerned about connections between the debate for amnesty and the recent setbacks.

"It is crucial that the civil war-era files of human rights defenders are preserved," WOLA said in a statement. "We urge the Salvadoran government ... to investigate and punish those responsible. We also urge the government to take steps to protect the various sources of data on human rights violations throughout the country."

Journalist Merlin Delcid reported from San Salvador. Mariano Castillo reported and wrote the story in Atlanta.

Chile to hold presidential election runoff

A woman casts her vote at a polling station during general elections in Santiago on November 17, 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Socialist Michelle Bachelet won a majority of votes, but not enough to win
• The South American country will hold a runoff election on December 15
• Bachelet was Chile's president from 2006 to 2010

Read this article in Spanish at CNNMexico.com

(CNN) -- Chilean voters cast ballots in a presidential election on Sunday, but no candidate secured enough votes to declare victory.

The South American country is set to hold a runoff election December 15.

Socialist Michelle Bachelet, who was Chile's president from 2006 to 2010, will face off against Evelyn Matthei of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party.

Chile's constitution requires a candidate to garner more than 50% of votes to win the presidential election.

Bachelet had won 46.8% of votes with more than 92% of votes counted, elections officials said Sunday night. Matthei had garnered 25.1% of votes.

READ MORE: Can Bachelet lead Chile to change?

CNN's Elwyn Lopez contributed to this report.

Cuba libre: Could port herald new economic age for communist island?

By Eoghan Macguire, for CNN

November 20, 2013 -- Updated 1205 GMT (2005 HKT)

The Gateway goes behind the scenes of the world's major transport hubs, revealing the logistics that keep goods and people moving.

(CNN) -- In the sleepy seaside town of Mariel, northwest Cuba, a hulking monument to the communist islands' evolving economy is rapidly taking shape.

It is here, under the intense glare of the Caribbean sun, that a giant free-trade zone (FTZ) and container port are in the latter stages of construction.

The deep-water facility will have an annual capacity of up to one million containers when finished (three times that of Havana's existing port roughly 30 miles away) and 700 meters of berth that it is hoped will host some of the world's largest cargo ships.

Partially financed by loans from Brazil and built by Brazilian construction firm, Odebrecht, the port will be operated by Singapore's PSA. The FTZ, meanwhile, aims to attract international companies to Cuba by offering them a low-tax, low-regulation environment in which to manufacture goods.

Mariel, Cuba (click to expand)

"What the zone is intended for is to create a special climate where foreign capital is going to have better conditions than in the rest of the country," said Cuba's foreign trade and investment minister, Rodrigo Malmierca, during a September visit to Beijing.

See also: Dawn of the super-ports

The $900 million project mirrors similar developments and FTZs that have sprung up in fast-growing communist nations such as China and Vietnam in recent decades -- although experts doubt whether Cuba will follow the same path as the "Asian Tigers."

While the ruling Communist Party maintains that state control will take precedence, the ambitious development is the latest in a series of controlled reforms that have been made since Raul Castro came to power in 2008. The government has already relaxed its control over many sectors, encouraging ordinary Cubans to fill the void with their own private enterprises.

A sign at the entrance to the town of Mariel, Cuba (Credit: Derek R. Kolb)

"Cuba is shedding its old skin and it's becoming something else which is like a hybrid of models," explained senior Latin America fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the book "Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know," Julia Sweig.

"This will (likely consist) of a much larger private sector, a much smaller social sector with the basics of social protection left in place, a lot more personal autonomy and economic freedom for Cuban people without necessarily moving beyond the single party system," she added.

Regional developments

This new economic direction -- which the administration refers to as an "update" of the socialist economic system -- and in particular the Mariel development have been brought about by a number of specific challenges and opportunities for Cuba, Sweig explained.

The widening of the Panama Canal (which is due to be completed in 2015) means more of the world's largest ships will soon be passing through the Caribbean, providing Cuba with the chance to benefit as a transhipment hub thanks to its strategically favorable location.

Fast-growing economies in the region, such as Brazil, Mexico and Chile, meanwhile, provide fresh possibilities for foreign investment and trade tie-ups. Nurturing new relationships has been made all the more important given the volatile political climate in Venezuela, whose leftist government currently sells subsidized oil and trades with Cuba on conditions that are highly favorable to the island country.

A vitally important cog in this wide-ranging strategy is Mariel. According to Carmelo Mesa, professor of economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and author of the book "Cuba under Raul Castro: Assessing the Reforms," the port and FTZ are by far the most important development project on the island.

See also: What happens to goods lost at sea?

"The objective for Mariel and the free zone is to expand infrastructure, increase exports, reduce imports and develop high-tech projects that will create jobs," Mesa said. "This is important as the Cuban government has indicated that anywhere from 1.3 million to 1.8 million workers in the state sector are unneeded and must be dismissed.

"Cuban exports are generally raw materials, except for pharmaceutical products and biotechnology products but this is only about 8% (of exports). So they want to have value added goods such as computers, appliances and expand biotechnology," he added.

Breaking with the past

Whether the wider economic plan and investment in Mariel will achieve these aims, however, remains far from certain.

The 51-year-old U.S. trade embargo still restricts Cuba's ability to trade freely with its international partners. Any ship that docks in Cuba cannot enter the United States for six months. If the embargo was ever lifted, however, the FTZ would be favorably located (only 120 miles from Florida) to serve as a low-cost site for companies looking to manufacture and ship their products into the U.S. market.

As it stands, international investors will have to be persuaded to choose Cuba over nearby competitors. The likes of Panama, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic already have established FTZs in their territories.

A panoramic view of Mariel, Cuba (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Mesa also points to economic development zones introduced under Fidel Castro in the 1990s and early 2000s which expanded very quickly before "there was a re-centralization of the economy" leading many foreign firms to pull out of Cuba.

According to Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Cuba specialist at IHS Global Insight, many investors still see Cuba as a "hostile business environment" and will treat any opening of the economy with a high degree of skepticism.

"This opening is going to be taken with a pinch of salt ... it's still to be assessed what the tax and regulatory benefits of the (FTZ) will be," he said.

The end of communism?

Despite these significant challenges, Cuba still has much to offer international companies, not least a well-educated labor force -- Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates of any country, according to data compiled by the CIA World Factbook.

Mesa however identifies laws that restrict foreign companies hiring Cubans directly as a potential disincentive to FTZ investors. Instead, workers are employed via a government agency that makes all decisions on the wages they receive often driving up the price of labor -- although new laws on foreign investment are expected.

See also: Where are the world's piracy hotspots?

Sweig meanwhile points to the lifting of travel restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba in recent years and a gradual shift in rhetoric in Washington policy circles that indicates a softening on the issue of the embargo.

All concur however that, despite the tentative adoption of market principles and the loosening of central economic control, this is far from the beginning of the end of communism in Cuba.

"(The Cubans) know they need to create these types of clusters where they can operate more aggressive free trade economic policies without necessarily affecting the economic dynamics of ordinary Cubans," Moya-Ocampo said.

"It's pragmatism," he added. "Cuba is trying to update its structures to meet the new realities of Latin America."

Decree powers widen Venezuelan president's economic war

By Mariano Castillo and Osmary Hernandez, CNN

November 20, 2013 -- Updated 1955 GMT (0355 HKT)

The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, applauds Wednesday as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shows the document giving him special decree powers.

 

Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuelan lawmakers have given President Nicolas Maduro special decree powers to fight an "economic war," but the shape that fight will take is uncertain.

Maduro has promised to use his new powers -- approved by the National Assembly on Tuesday -- to make sweeping changes to the way the economy is run in the oil-rich, but poorly managed South American nation.

Among his priorities, Maduro says, will be to cap profits for businesses at between 15% and 30% and to enforce price controls on an expanding number of goods.

Some see this as a movement to a fully socialist model; other see political opportunism.

In recent months, Maduro has blamed capitalism for speculation that is driving high rates of inflation and creating widespread shortages of staples.

The so-called "enabling law" that grants him decree powers could make it easier for him to set price controls, as he did recently to an electronics and appliance chain he accused of price gouging.

The result was a run on the Daka chain of stores, as people mobbed to buy deeply discounted electronics in chaotic scenes that included some looting.

"Consumerism is not the path," the President said Tuesday. "We are re-establishing prices so that the people's economic rights are respected, not to consume without control."

The underlying goal of these expanded powers are for Maduro to push a socialist agenda to the point of no return, said Jose Vicente Haro, a Venezuelan constitutional lawyer.

"What we've seen is just a little of what's coming," he told CNN en Español. "What Nicolas Maduro's primary objective is now is to regulate the profits of all companies that provide services or produce goods."

Those who agree with Haro fear that foreign investment in Venezuela will dry up as the government cuts their profits.

But behind the blustery rhetoric, there may be hints at a more pragmatic approach, said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert and senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Faced with a difficult transition after the death of President Hugo Chavez, Maduro has adopted the economic war for political purposes, Smilde said.

The bloc that supported Chavez has been difficult for Maduro to keep together. By putting a name and a face to the "enemy," as he did by singling out the Daka electronics chain, the President is trying to unite voters behind his party ahead of local elections next month, Smilde said.

"Their idea is to have this carry them through the elections," he said. "I think it's completely political."

Behind the scenes, there are signs that the Venezuelan government is taking a less controversial approach to its economy.

To fight a shortage of dollars, Venezuela's state-run oil company announced it will sell $4.5 billion in bonds, for instance. There are also reports that it will try to make up even more ground by selling gold from its reserves.

Facing shortages, Venezuela takes over toilet paper factory

Maduro hasn't highlighted these moves the same way he has trumpeted his new decree powers, but they are telling of a more pragmatic approach, Smilde said.

The government's short-term goal, Venezuelan analyst John Magdaleno agreed, could be to gain an advantage at the polls.

Once the election is over, the government will have to take unpopular steps, such as devaluing its currency, to curb inflation.

"I think it's inevitable that to face the current economic situation the government will have to take some measures that will have a negative impact on the lower classes," Magdaleno said.

On the streets, some Venezuelans see the economic war that their leader is waging as a necessity, or as a dangerous blank check.

"There's no merchandise, and what's available is expensive," said Leonardo Guerrero, who sells fish.

He has seen variety falling and costs rising, and would like to see a "fair price," for more products, he said.

U.S. expels three Venezuelan diplomats

 

Felipe Massa: Brazil faces F1 driver crisis

By Ben Wyatt, CNN

November 22, 2013 -- Updated 1928 GMT (0328 HKT)

Massa worried for Brazilian F1 future

Mugello, Italy (CNN) -- Felipe Massa can be forgiven for feeling a little emotional ahead of this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

After notching up 11 wins in eight years for Ferrari, a longevity that makes him the famous Italian Formula One team's second-longest-serving driver, his last race for the Scuderia will be at the track he calls home.

Few nations can deliver the passion for motorsport and race-day color that Brazil offers, or match the country for its production-line output of star drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet.

But for the latest talent from those shores, there is good reason to be anxious throughout the festivities that will take place at the Sao Paulo-based Interlagos circuit.

"We've always had great drivers in Brazil and many champions, I think racing is in our blood, and it's very special to be part of Brazil and to carry on fighting," Massa told CNN's The Circuit.

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"But Brazil is getting less and less drivers, you know, so now I am the only Brazilian Formula One driver.

"It's difficult to see other drivers that can replace me for the future. When I was racing in little categories -- Formula Renault, Formula 3000 here in Europe -- in every category there was one Brazilian fighting for the championship, for victories.

"And now you don't see it anymore. It is definitely a worry and is something that ... I think our organization, our federation, should do something to improve our school in Brazil."

The 32-year-old, who has agreed a deal with Williams for the next three seasons after being replaced by Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, believes Brazil needs to invest more on young talent and build on the strengths of its go-kart program.

"Something's changed, especially in the school categories. We don't have another category after go-karts. Any way I can help ... I would do everything I can because Brazil is a very special country for motor racing," Massa added.

Read: 'Fernando Alonso's season? 8/10'

Despite his fears for the future, Massa is passionate about the role Interlagos has played in his career.

"Well, I love that track. I mean, I started there. On the other side of the wall there's the go-kart track, and this side of the wall is the normal racing track for the cars. I started when I was eight in go-karts, so I spent my life there and it's a fantastic track," he said.

These fond memories persist despite Interlagos also being the location where Massa was narrowly beaten by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to the drivers' world title in 2008, finishing just one point behind the Englishman despite his victory.

"Even if I lost the championship there in the last corner, I won the race. I started in pole position, I did the quickest lap of the race, so everything was perfect," he said.

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F1 legend on making it big in the U.S.

 

"For sure I lost the championship ... but I also had a great race in Sao Paulo and I had also a great championship as well."

Ferrari has not always been the easiest team to be a number two driver -- as Barrichello found out when he had to take a back seat to the ambitions of Michael Schumacher from 2000-05.

Massa, likewise, has had second billing at Mugello since the 2010 arrival of double world champion Fernando Alonso.

Team orders have often been enforced to the detriment of Massa's own goals, but he says there are no regrets over his time driving behind the "Prancing Horse" badge.

Read: Mark Webber aims to leave F1 on a high

"For sure you always have days where you expect better results and better things, but ... I had a lot of great times with Ferrari and very good years," said Massa, who suffered a horrific accident in Hungary in 2009 that kept him out of the car until the following season due to serious head injuries.

"Good fights, you know, victories and some difficult days, even one big accident that I had, which was also part of my history and my life. But I think I would not change anything in my life. I am very happy and I have zero frustrations in my life," he added.

No frustrations, maybe, but he still has an unfulfilled ambition of becoming world champion which, despite the domination of Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bulls, burns on inside his heart.

Getting back in the winning habit in front of a home crowd would be a big step in the right direction.

"When I don't believe anymore, I would stop racing," he said. "I mean, I really believe in myself, I know what I can do and I am really looking forward to having my championship, my title, and working on that."

Massa's bid for a "home victory" got off to a steady but unspectacular start Friday, claiming seventh fastest time in afternoon practice in his Ferrari, but quicker than teammate Alonso, who was 11th best.

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time in both sessions for Mercedes, with four-time champion Vettel second best in the afternoon runs as he bids for his ninth straight win and 13th of the season.

 

With FARC negotiations on table, Colombian president seeks 2nd term

By Mariano Castillo and Fernando Ramos, CNN

November 21, 2013 -- Updated 1629 GMT (0029 HKT)

Juan Manuel Santos Calderon in New York on September 24, 2013

Bogota, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos officially announced he will seek re-election, a decision that could affect the ongoing peace talks between the government and the FARC.

"You elected me to strengthen the results that we had achieved in security, and we have delivered," Santos said in a televised speech Wednesday night.

Santos, who was first elected in 2010 on a platform of continuing an offensive against the leftist guerrillas that have been at war with the government for decades, instead followed a different path.

The hallmark of his presidency now is the peace process between the government and the largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The peace process has been ongoing for one year, with progress coming slowly. This approach is controversial in Colombia, which in the past has been burned by failed negotiation attempts.

With a peace agreement unlikely to be in place before next year's presidential election, its chances of success could be foreshadowed by the vote.

One of Santos' rivals for the presidency is Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, who has called for an end to the peace talks and is against giving a political space to the rebels.

Zuluaga's proposal is backed by former President Alvaro Uribe, a former ally of Santos who now favors someone with a hardline stance against the guerrillas.

Santos says he wants to be re-elected to finish the peace process he started.

"We still have big challenges, but I'm convinced that the way to confront them is not only through blood and fire," he said.

Santos' current approval rating of about 30% means his incumbency will not guarantee him a second four-year term.

"He thinks that because of fragmentation among the political parties and that other political leaders also haven't consolidated supporters, he can be re-elected," political analyst Jaime Arango said.

Santos placed all his political capital on the negotiations with the FARC, so it's natural that he is seeking re-election, another analyst, Vicente Torrijos, said.

Seeking a second term was his only option given that the peace process is still underway, he said.

"So he is going to present himself to Colombians and the world as the peacemaker and of course this is his best calling card to aspire to this re-election," he said.

Pope to put 'St. Peter's bones' on display at Vatican

London (CNN) -- After centuries buried beneath the Vatican, and decades hidden away inside the Holy See, the bones of a man long believed to be St. Peter, one of the founding fathers of the Christian church, are to go on display for the first time.

The controversial remains will be revealed to the public on Sunday at a mass in St Peter's Square marking the conclusion of the Catholic church's "Year of Faith."

Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said the "relics which tradition recognizes as those of the apostle who gave his life for the Lord" would be exhibited as part of the service.

L'Osservatore Romano reports that 8.5 million pilgrims have venerated the relics over the course of the year.

But whether the bones, normally kept in an urn housed in the private chapel of the Pope's own Vatican apartments, really are those of St. Peter, the fisherman-turned-disciple who became the first pope, is open to question.

Tradition has it that St. Peter was martyred -- by being crucified, upside down -- in Rome in A.D. 64. before being buried in the city.

In his book "The Vatican Diaries," John Thavis wrote that "St. Peter's tomb in the cemetery on the Vatican Hill became... a popular pilgrimage site," prompting the emperor Constantine to build a basilica in his honor in the 4th century.

The remains which will be revealed on Sunday were among those discovered during an archaeological dig begun on the site in 1939; in 1968 the then pope, Paul VI, declared that they had been identified "in a manner which we believe convincing."

But with no DNA evidence to conclusively prove their identity, whether they belong to St. Peter is likely to remain an enduring mystery.

CNN's Vatican analyst John Allen says that like so much concerning religion, the belief that the bones are those of the disciple comes down to faith.

"Like other famous relics, such as the Shroud of Turin or the Belt of Mary, they evoke awe and devotion regardless of their actual provenance," Allen writes in an Op-Ed for CNN. "Faith, as the Bible puts it, lies in 'the evidence of things not seen.'"

Read more: The bones of Peter and the eyes of faith
Read more: Would the Mafia target Pope Francis?
Read more: New, popular pope, but same old church?
Read more: Pope embraces severely disfigured man

Wind energy company pleads guilty to eagle deaths

Obama administration takes action for the first time against wind farms for killing eagles

A golden eagle flies near a turbine on a wind farm owned by PacifiCorp in May 2013.

Matt Young/AP

For the first time, the Obama administration is taking action against wind farms for killing eagles.
Studies shows more than a dozen birds die each year through collisions with turbines, and that wind energy facilities can also cause harm through the loss of natural habitat.
In a settlement announced Friday, Duke Energy will pay $1 million for killing 14 golden eagles over the past three years at two wind farms in Wyoming.
The company says it pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The case is the first to be prosecuted under that law for a wind company by the Obama administration, which has championed  pollution-free wind power.
Eagles can slam into massive turbines while they are focused on the ground below them searching for prey.
A study by government biologists this year found that wind energy facilities in 10 states had killed at least 67 golden and bald eagles since 2008.
By 2030, there could be more than 100,000 wind turbines in the United States, and these could kill more than one million birds per year, according to the American Bird Conservatory.
If wind energy is to be completely green, it must be "bird-smart," the Conservatory said. That means careful siting, operation, monitoring, and compensation to reduce and redress any harm to birds.
Eagles tend to avoid areas where the landscape has been altered or developed, such as farms or towns, making these spots safer for developing wind energy.
Areas that should not host wind farms are migratory bottlenecks, wetlands, key nesting areas, the edges of ridges migrant birds use for direction, and habitat or flight paths of endangered or declining species, the Conservatory recommended.
Lights, such as strobe lights, can minimize nighttime migratory bird deaths.
Al Jazeera and The Associated Press

The incalculable cost of mass incarceration

As a college student in Baton Rouge, La., Clarence Aaron played football, worked summers as a longshoreman and volunteered in his community. Like many college students, he eventually did something very foolish. For Aaron, it involved drugs: He introduced a friend to a cocaine dealer and played a minor role in two drug deals, one of which did not even go through.
For that mistake, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Detainees at the Adelanto Detention Facility on Nov. 15, 2013, in Adelanto, Calif. It is the largest and newest ICE detention center in the state and is managed by the Geo Group, a private company.

John Moore/Getty Images

He is not alone. Nathan Pettus stole three belts from a department store. Damon Caliste stole digital cameras from Wal-Mart. Alexander Surry was in possession of a single crack rock. Leopoldo Hernandez-Miranda was convicted nearly 20 years ago of marijuana possession with intent to distribute; he is now 74 years old. Timothy Tyler mailed small amounts of LSD to an undercover agent he thought was a fellow Grateful Dead fan.
All of them are serving sentences of life without parole, or LWOP. They and other nonviolent LWOP prisoners are costing U.S. taxpayers over $1.7 billion dollars more than if LWOP were not a sentencing option, according to a report (PDF) released this month by the American Civil Liberties Union. And much of that money is going to a slew of private companies that profit from mass incarceration.
LWOP is second only to the death penalty in harsh prison sentences. In much of the world and through most of U.S. history, it was meted out for only the most serious of violent offenders. Only 20 percent of countries even have LWOP sentencing, and those that do typically reserve it for murder. But LWOP sentences have skyrocketed — quadrupling in the past 20 years — with the majority of them handed out for nonviolent crimes. The rising rates have mirrored a general increase in incarceration over the past few decades, but they have been particularly influenced by tough-on-crime legislation like mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which give a judge almost no leeway in sentencing after a conviction, and three-strikes laws, which mandate life imprisonment after three felonies, even if none of them were violent. Of prisoners serving life sentences without parole, 79 percent committed nonviolent drug crimes. In the United States, 1 prisoner in 30 is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In Pennsylvania the ratio is 1 in 10. In Louisiana it is 1 in 9.
With taxpayers shelling out billions of dollars for nonviolent offenders to languish in prison until they die and with many more offenders serving incredibly long sentences, the country’s prison system has become a cash cow, and private industry has stepped in to grab a share of it.

Just good business

The U.S. imprisons more people than any other society in the history of the world, with more than 2 million people currently behind bars, and private companies are gunning for more (PDF). The Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), just one of several private prison companies, netted $1.7 billion dollars in 2010. CCA's president and CEO, Damon Hininger, made $3.2 million in 2010. The Geo Group, another top prison company, raked in $1.2 billion and paid its CEO, George Zoley, $3.4 million the same year. The federal government and state governments across the nation funnel money into these private prisons, making them a multibillion dollar industry.
Like many other businesses, the private prison industry lobbies aggressively for its interests — not a problem in theory until you remember that its primary interest is building and filling prison beds. CCA spent more than $18 million on federal lobbying from 1999 to 2009 and nearly $1 million in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, the three biggest for-profit prison companies made more than $6 million in political contributions.

We have entirely lost perspective on what it means to deprive someone of their personal liberty for such exorbitant amounts of time.

There has been increased focus on private prisons over the past few years, particularly after a scandal in Arizona, where private prison companies stood to profit immensely from a law mandating incarceration of enormous swaths of the state's immigrant population. But it is not just private prisons that are cashing in. There is a long list of industries, individuals and institutions profiting from mass incarceration, all of which have financial incentives to imprison more people and to make sentences longer. These include private industry players such as phone companies that charge astronomical rates for prisoners to call their families, for-profit prison health care providers, commercial bail bond agents and private prison supervisors. But many other profiteers are public or government entities like public safety authorities profiting from civil forfeitures and prison guard unions.
Privatization of the American incarceration machine, with its promises to save money and promote efficiency, can sound appealing to champions of the free market. But it has not actually been shown to save money or increase efficiency. Instead it creates perverse, ugly incentives. The people running prisons like businesses operate as most business owners do: They want to make more money, get bigger and demonstrate profitability. That is not much of a problem if you are selling basic goods. It is a big one when the only way to profit is by locking more people in prison for longer terms.

A grim new normal

The ACLU report focuses on nonviolent offenders who have been formally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But those individuals are, as the ACLU's deputy legal director, Vanita Gupta, told me, "just the tip of the iceberg in terms of excessive sentencing and incarceration." Many more people are serving long prison terms — of hundreds of years — that are effectively life sentences without parole, Gupta said. "We have become inured to excessive sentencing. It's just become the new normal."
Compared with life in prison, 10 years sounds short. But think about what you were doing 10 years ago, and then imagine yourself being locked in a 6-by-8-foot cell since then. Our cultural perception of what is a long sentence has become so skewed by the ubiquity of life imprisonment and sentences of 50 years, 100 years and even multiples of 100 years that we have entirely lost perspective on what it means to deprive people of their personal liberty for such exorbitant amounts of time.
When the death penalty was suspended in the 1970s, sentencing changed dramatically as life without parole became the harshest punishment on the table. After the death penalty was reinstated, however, things did not go back; they got even more extreme. With mandatory minimum sentencing laws, judges have almost no power to hand down reasonable sentences, while prosecutors have enormous discretion in determining how long an individual goes to prison. The specter of life in prison is now routinely used in plea bargaining; after all, even 25 or 50 years behind bars is preferable to life.
The U.S. now doles out longer, harsher sentences than nearly all economically and developmentally comparable nations, but those sentences have not actually resulted in lower crime rates than our peers'. Our LWOP numbers are 173 times that of the United Kingdom and 29 that of the Netherlands — the only two European countries that even imprison offenders without parole. Our crime rates are not appreciably lower than either of those countries', and we imprison significantly more people per capita.
What have a failed drug war, a dangerous stigmatization of imprisonment and extreme sentencing norms yielded instead? A bloated prison population that churns out offenders who are at best less employable and at worst more dangerous coming out than they were going in. Communities devastated by mass incarcerations. A flagging economy struggling to keep up with the multibillion-dollar burden we have built.

Prisons will at some point effectively become geriatric holding wards for aging inmates.”

We have built, too, towns where much of the local industry revolves around prisons — communities that are now financially dependent on incarceration.
"Fifteen years ago or so, every politician fervently denied that the reason they were supporting prison laws was that they had prisons in their jurisdictions that were providing jobs," said Malcolm C. Young, the prison re-entry strategies director at Northwestern Law School's Bluhm Legal Clinic. "Since the recession, that pretense has dropped away, and you can read newspapers and see public officials quoted frequently that they want to keep a prison open because it's economically important, because of the jobs provided in their communities."

Bigger than prisons

The prison system has increasingly become a first resort in areas where other institutions used to step in. Incarceration has largely taken the place of community mental-health facilities. The sheriff of Cook County, Ill., where Young used to practice, says his jail has "effectively become the largest mental-health hospital in the country."
We use incarceration instead of treatment and rehabilitation for drug offenders, and we put in the juvenile-detention system young people who would be better served with comprehensive support. The prison system also ends up, in one way or another, catching too many individuals who have been left barely afloat in a postindustrial society, unable to rely on the prospect of working a labor job and making a reasonable living.
"It's become a very quick go-to system for a lot of other social problems like substance abuse, mental illness and the void of policymaking in immigration," Gupta said. "The criminal-justice system is not going to solve these problems and in many cases makes it worse."
The failure of other institutions to tackle social problems outside an incarceration context is a failure of political and public will. With billions of dollars going toward prisons, politicians can handily portray themselves as being tough on crime. Long-term investments in public health and community solutions are more difficult to articulate in a campaign platform and are less reducible into the sound bites we all ostensibly agree on — putting criminals behind bars, getting justice for victims, keeping our streets safe. The individuals who end up behind bars may be largely nonviolent, but they are also socially unimportant. They are disproportionately mentally ill, poor and nonwhite. (It will come as no surprise to learn that the application of LWOP has been radically prejudicial. At the federal level, nonviolent black offenders are sentenced to LWOP at 20 times the rate of their white counterparts.)

Unsustainable and unjust

Overlapping and complex influences — financial, psychological, cultural and institutional — make fixing the current system no easy task. But things may be changing, albeit slowly. People across the political spectrum are seeing that our current rates of incarceration are unsustainable, and prison reform is increasingly becoming a bipartisan issue.
The most effective solution may be the simplest: Put fewer people in jail. Tackle social problems head-on instead of simply punishing offenders. That means drug treatment and rehabilitation programs, comprehensive community-based mental-health care, social interventions for troubled youth and a realistic and humane immigration policy.
We also need to restructure sentencing procedures. An end to mandatory minimums and three-strikes laws would help, but sentencing in general needs to be reined in. To that end, we should sentence with a purpose. "We should be evaluating the extent of the damage that the individual had caused and the potential problems the individual poses to their community," said Young. "We should join other countries in recognizing that even short periods of incarceration are severe punishment."
A focus on rehabilitation and holistic solutions may also lower the crime rate, save taxpayer dollars and rebuild devastated communities. At the very least, reform of the current model, driven by data and research, would ensure that people like Clarence Aaron would not spend their entire lives in prisons that, because of life without parole policies, will at some point effectively become geriatric holding wards for aging inmates. It would curb our financial waste, and it would end our brutal indifference to the many people whose lives are destroyed by the current system.

Jill Filipovic is a lawyer and writer. She blogs at Feministe and is a weekly columnist at the Guardian.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.

Report: IRS security protocols risk taxpayer data

According to report by government IRS watchdog, security steps safeguarding Americans' personal data is insufficient

J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), during a House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 3, 2013.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has failed to implement new management protocols to sufficiently protect the security of American taxpayers' personal data, according to a new report from the government’s tax watchdog.
The report, conducted in September but publicly released for the first time Thursday, examined previous IRS actions to bolster the agency’s ability to ensure secure taxpayer data.
But the annual internal audit of IRS security protocols conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said that the actions taken by the agency were insufficient and could leave personal data open to a possible security breach.
“When the right degree of security diligence is not applied to systems, disgruntled insiders or malicious outsiders can exploit security weaknesses and may gain unauthorized access,” said the report.
The IRS instituted a number of "planned corrective actions" (PCAs) in response to previous TIGTA reports about security shortcomings in the agency, but the new TIGTA report said that those PCAs, considered “closed” or completed by the IRS, were inadequate.
“During our audit, TIGTA determined that eight (42 percent) of 19 PCAs that were approved and closed as fully implemented to address reported security weaknesses from prior TIGTA audits were only partially implemented.”
Among its recommendations, TIGTA said the IRS should “strengthen its management controls to adhere to internal control requirements,” “provide refresher training to employees involved” in the internal auditing process and indicate where past actions to fix security shortcomings have been incomplete.
TIGTA said that the IRS “agreed with five of TIGTA’s six recommendations and plans to issue guidance on internal control requirements, provide training, and revise the procedures to improve the IRS’s management controls over the PCAs.” It said that it “partially agreed with the sixth recommendation to upload documentation for previously closed PCAs” pending the completion of an internal IRS assessment.
The new report follows a March 2013 assessment  from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional watchdog for the government’s use of public funds, which previously raised concerns about security protections in place by the IRS.
It too placed fault at the ability of the agency to successfully implement the management reforms of security problems it had already been alerted to or identified.
“An underlying reason for these [security] weaknesses is that IRS has not effectively implemented portions of its information security program,” that report said.
Until IRS appropriately controls users’ access to its systems and effectively implements its procedures for authorization, the agency has limited assurance that its information resources are being protected from unauthorized access, alteration, and disclosure,” it went on to say.

In Chile and Seattle, the left faces an electoral dilemma

How do protest activists elected to public office avoid being drawn into politics as usual?

Left: Chilean presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet delivers a speech at the party's headquarters in Santiago, on Nov. 17, 2013. Right: Kshama Sawant ran a grassroots campaign and said she ignored warnings that she had no chance of winning without corporate money or Democratic endorsement.

Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images (Left), Ted S. Warren/AP (Right)

The left — at least in the somewhat centrist incarnation of Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet — emerged dominant from last Sunday's first-round presidential election. But a sit-in at her campaign office that day by leftist students whose banner proclaimed that "Change is not in La Moneda (presidential palace), but in the streets" served up a reminder of the challenges of governing from the left in a situation where it has built up leverage in recent years through mass street protests.

Bachelet, a socialist and a survivor of former dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime of torture in the 1970s and 80s, embraced some of the concerns of the protest movement, promising to help make higher education available to everyone by raising corporate taxes and rewriting the constitution. Among those elected to the legislature as part of Bachelet's New Majority coalition is Camilla Vallejo, a former student leader who famously led thousands of Chileans into the streets in 2011 to demand educational reforms. Vallejo and three other newly elected legislators who all gained prominence as leaders of the Communist Youth of Chile vowed to use their platform in the legislature to narrow the gap between rich and poor, and counter pressure from Bachelet's right flank.

But their entry into mainstream electoral politics has drawn criticism from their own left flank, among those who fear that being in government will demobilize their movement on the streets, and thereby dilute its leverage. Vallejo wasn't buying that argument, telling the Guardian the election to congress of student leaders "will not only demonstrate that the social movements can and should have their own representatives in congress, but also make it possible … to build political spaces that allow us to make the structural changes our society demands."
Vallejo's dilemma is this: Entering the system she fought so hard to change might compromise her credibility and also make it harder to keep people on the streets demanding change. At the same time, choosing not to participate in institutional politics might jeopardize her ability to forge change, critics say.
Melissa Sepulveda, the new head of the Universidad de Chile's student body, told Reuters before the election that she would not vote for Vallejo. "The possibility for change isn't in Congress," she said.
Chile's leftists also have to contend with the traumatic memory of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist who was overthrown and killed in a U.S.-backed coup in 1973, which saw thousands of leftists tortured and killed.
Vallejo's pledge to "keep one foot in the streets" is a partial acknowledgement of the logic in the banner hung by the protesters at Bachelet's office — that winning elections will not, in itself, ensure far-reaching social change. And the compromises inevitably involved in operating in elected political office will leave both Bachelet and Vallejo vulnerable to outcries from the street.

US activists elected

The dilemma faced by Chilean leftists may be recognizable to some in U.S. social movements, such as Occupy. Kshama Sawant, a former Occupy activist, was recently elected as a member of the Seattle City Council, after running as an avowed socialist. Upon beating Democratic Party incumbent Richard Conlin, she told Al Jazeera that it is important to enter the political arena to have a chance at actually changing policies, but, "in a genuine way" — something she said could be accomplished by "being independent of the two big-business parties."

Her politics, she said, would "give political voice to the struggles of low-paid workers, youth, people of color and all those who are shut out by the political machine that runs this city on behalf of the wealthy elite." Sawant sees the choice between life as an activist on the streets and "corporate politician" as a false dichotomy.

"People are forced to think you can either be an activist for the outside, or, if you’re in the inside, you cannot do what you want to do. But it depends on whether you’re clear that you cannot do it by being a part of the two-party system."

Sawant campaigned on raising the minimum wage to $15 and challenging social injustice in the corporate sector. She said she does not accept corporate funding, and paid for her campaign with donations from private individuals. She not only rejects politics as usual, but sees her role as disruption of the current order.

"What needs clarity is that Democrats (politicians) are not our allies either," she said, making the case for politics independent of the two-party system. Instead, she will seek a coalition of her own, using her position "to encourage more and more people to become part of social movements." And despite proclaiming an ideology that has long been marginalized on the U.S. political landscape, she hopes to capitalize on the growing number of young Americans who are said to think more favorably of socialism than capitalism, according to a 2011 Pew research poll.

"I can stay true to my principles but I am only one person," she said. "We need momentum."

Sawant, however, may not be quite so alone. In Cambridge, Mass., Nadeem Mazen, a former Occupy Boston activist, was elected to the City Council with a campaign focusing on affordable housing, education and social justice.

He believes the risks associated with trying to stay in office for decades might outweigh the benefits of long-term institutional politics. He promised to "cycle fresh voices" into the system, and imposed a limit on his term to stay "more focused." He used off-beat electoral techniques, such as employing video skills to bring politics closer to the public, which cannot always be expected to have time for "heavy reading to get up to speed on Cambridge politics," he said. He also promised to use at least a third of his city councilor salary to fund community organizing.

"I pledge to put my dollars towards hiring leaders and organizers in our community to proactively represent residents' interests," he said. Similarly, Sawant promised that if elected, "I will only take the average worker's wage and donate the rest to building social movements." 

Having used credibility built through organizing protests to propel themselves into elected office, Vallejo, Sawant and Mazen — despite their ideological differences — share a common dilemma: How to maintain the leverage they built on the streets from inside political institutions long dominated by monied interests.

With wire services

Afghanistan defies US on security pact signing deadline

Kabul says vote will have to wait until next president is elected in April 2014, but US wants it signed by end of year

A grand assembly of tribal chieftains, community elders and politicians began four days of debating the security pact, which will shape the future U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images

The future of U.S. troops in Afghanistan remained uncertain Friday after a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected a U.S. call to sign a security pact by the end of this year, rather than after next year's presidential election.
The security pact would allow U.S. soldiers to remain in the country beyond 2013, and would give the troops immunity from local legal prosecution – a proposal that has divided Afghanistan.
The United States has repeatedly said it will not wait until after the April 2014 vote to seal the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), and has rejected Karzai's suggestion for the signing to take place next year "properly and with dignity."
Without an accord, the U.S. could pull out most of its troops by the end of 2014, as it did two years ago when it failed to negotiate a deal with Iraq.
"We do not recognize any deadline from the U.S. side," said Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for Karzai, as Afghan tribal elders considered the pact for a second day. "They have set other deadlines also, so this is nothing new to us."
Karzai had suggested on Thursday, as the Afghan leaders began a meeting known as a Loya Jirga, that the signing of the pact should wait until after the poll. Having served two terms, he is ineligible to run again.

My trust with America is not good ... I don't trust them and they don't trust me.

Karzai

In Washington, the White House kept up the pressure on Karzai, saying President Barack Obama wanted the BSA signed by the end of the year. Obama would decide about a further U.S. presence after Afghan authorities approved the deal, U.S. officials say.
"It is our final offer," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
"We can't push it into next year and be expected to plan for a post-2014 military presence," he told reporters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. needs to ensure there would be protection for its forces if Washington kept the troops in Afghanistan beyond next year.
"Without that, I, as secretary of defense, could not recommend to the president of the United States to go forward," he said on a visit to Halifax.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said this week that the language of the accord had been agreed upon.

Karzai distances himself

Faizi refused all comment on whether Karzai had endorsed the plan. He said any action by the president depended strictly on the recommendation of the Loya Jirga.
"It is absolutely up to the Jirga to decide about the BSA,” he said. “The president very clearly said good security, peace and good elections are the key to the signing of this document."
Most participants at the gathering's second day appeared to favor ratifying the pact. But reporters had little access to opponents of the deal and were kept away by security staff.
"We have to sign this agreement with the United States of America," said Aminullah Mawiz Nooristani, an elder from eastern Nuristan province. "President Karzai has to sign it as soon as we announce our decision."
Afghanistan has wrangled for more than a year over the pact with the U.S., which has had troops in the country since the Taliban was ousted from power late in 2001.
Karzai has had an increasingly fraught relationship with Washington, and is reluctant to be associated with the pact.
"My trust with America is not good," Karzai told the assembly on Thursday in his opening speech. "I don't trust them and they don't trust me."
The elders, largely handpicked by Karzai's administration, are expected to vote in favor of the document and urge the president to follow their advice, allowing Karzai to distance himself from the process without jeopardizing the deal.
The 2,500-member assembly is expected to announce its decision on Sunday.
The pact contains painful concessions such as immunity for U.S. forces from Afghan law, and allowing them to enter Afghan homes if an American life is under direct threat.
"Whatever the Jirga tells him, whether they tell him to sign it before election or after the election, he will follow through," said Hasseeb Humayun, a member of the group.
If the U.S. pulls out its troops, other countries in the NATO alliance underpinning Karzai's administration are expected to follow suit, and a thinner international presence could deter donors from releasing promised funds.
Afghanistan remains largely dependent on foreign aid.
Reuters