US orders its non-emergency personnel to leave Nicaragua

Mexico to cut border region VAT

MANAGUA, July 7, (Agencies): The United States on Friday ordered all of its non-emergency personnel to leave crisis-stricken Nicaragua amid a wave of anti-government protests and violence that has left 230 dead, the embassy in the capital Managua said.

The US “ordered the departure of non-emergency US government personnel” and urged citizens to reconsider traveling to Nicaragua due to “crime, civil unrest, and limited healthcare availability,” according to a statement.

“Heavily armed, government-controlled parapolice forces in civilian clothing, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, operate in large parts of the country, including Managua,” it warned, also advising citizens to avoid demonstrations, which began in April.

Protesters are demanding elections be brought forward, or the resignation of President Daniel Ortega, whom they accuse of establishing a dictatorship with his wife and vice president Rosario Murillo.

Ortega

Mexico to cut VAT:

Mexico’s next government will press ahead with president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plan to cut the value added tax (VAT) rate in a strip along the US border, probably to 8 percent from 16 percent now, a top aide said on Friday.

Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec 1, hopes such measures could improve ties with the United States by reining in illegal migration, which has been a major bone of contention between Mexico and US President Donald Trump.

The strip would be about 30 km (19 miles) wide so as to include major border cities such as Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez and Reynosa, said Carlos Urzua, the finance minister-designate.

Mexico mourns 24:

Grieving emergency personnel in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec carried the caskets of four comrades through the town’s streets Friday as authorities investigated whether an attempt to douse burning fireworks with water may have triggered further blasts that killed a total of 24 people.

The four were among seven firefighters, police officers and civil defense workers killed when they rushed to the scene of a first blast, only to be felled by three subsequent explosions. Fifty-four people were injured, 41 of whom remain hospitalized.

Chapo

lieutenant

extradited:

Mexico on Friday extradited to the United States a senior lieutenant of the Sinaloa Cartel drug gang formerly headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the attorney general’s office said.

Damaso Lopez, known as “The Graduate” because of his higher education studies, was a former security official in Sinaloa state who rose to become one of the leaders of the cartel, authorities say. He was arrested in Mexico City last year.

Mexico’s acting attorney general, Alberto Elias Beltran, said Lopez was seen as an important witness in the case against Guzman, who was extradited to the United States in January 2017 to face drug trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Brazil labor min suspended:

Brazil’s labor minister was suspended Thursday by a Supreme Court justice as part of an investigation into fraud.

Helton Yomura cannot enter the Labor Ministry’s offices or have contact with its staff, said Joana Dantas, a ministry press officer.

Yomura’s removal is another blow to President Michel Temer’s administration, which has already seen several ministers resign amid scandal.