Venezuela inflation reaches quadruple digits, hitting 1,369 pct
BUENOS (Reuters) - A federal judge in Argentina indicted former President Cristina Fernandez for treason and asked for her arrest for allegedly covering up Iran’s possible role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people, a court ruling said.
As Fernandez is a senator, Congress would first have to vote to strip her of parliamentary immunity for an arrest to occur. The judge, Claudio Bonadio, also indicted and ordered house arrest for Fernandez’s Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, the 491-page ruling said.
Fernandez called a news conference in Congress to deny wrongdoing and accuse Bonadio and President Mauricio Macri of degrading the judiciary.
“It is an invented case about facts that did not exist,” she said, dressed in white.
Timerman’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
While removing immunity from lawmakers is rare in Argentina, Congress voted on Oct. 25 to do so for Fernandez’s former planning minister Julio De Vido and he was arrested the same day. De Vido is accused of fraud and corruption, which he denies.
Argentina’s legislature has entered a period of judicial recess until March but can be convened for urgent matters.
Fernandez and her allies have been the focus of several high profile cases with arrests and indictments since center-right Mauricio Macri defeated her chosen successor and was elected president in late 2015. CARACAS, (Reuters) - Crisis-stricken Venezuela’s inflation rate reached quadruple digits for the first time, according to figures released by the opposition-led Congress, which show consumer prices rising by 1,369 percent between January and November.
The legislature, which this year began publishing its own inflation figures after the government stopped releasing them, said prices rose by 56.7 percent in November and estimated that 2017 inflation would top 2,000 percent.
The OPEC member country’s once-thriving socialist economy has collapsed since the 2014 fall of oil prices, leaving millions unable to find basic food or medicine. President Nicolas Maduro blames the situation on an opposition-led “economic war.”
“More hunger and misery is on the way for our already beaten-down population,” said opposition deputy Angel Alvarado, who presented the report.