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Charlie Crist makes first swing through Miami after announcing run for governor Samantha J. Gross, The Miami Herald
May 8 Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist made his first campaign stop in South Florida Saturday as he angles to get his old job back as Florida governor.
Crist, who launched his campaign Tuesday in St. Petersburg, kicked off a day-long itinerary in Miami-Dade with Cuban-American Democrats at Tropical Park, where he spoke about loosening economic restrictions placed by the U.S. on the communist island. I m running for governor because you deserve better, he told an audience of about two dozen people while sitting a table filled with Cuban coffee and guava pastelitos, though he didn t touch the food.
by Owen Schalk / May 7th, 2021
Gustavo Petro is a force to be reckoned with in Colombian politics. The senator – once a member of the M-19 guerilla group, later elected to the House of Representations in the 1990s and then the mayorship of Bogotá (2012-2016) – has become the candidate to beat in next year’s presidential election. He is such a prominent opponent of right-wing politics in the country that while Donald Trump was campaigning in Florida in 2020 he included Petro in one of his anti-socialist diatribes, tweeting that “Biden is supported by socialist Gustavo Petro, a major LOSER and former M-19 guerrilla leader. Biden is weak on socialism and will betray Colombia. I stand with you!”
Colombia’s relationship with the United States is hitting its lowest point in decades as the country’s government faces criticism over its militarized response to massive street protests. The wave of protests risks destabilizing one of Latin America s most functional democracies and the United States s closest ally in the region. While international organizations like the United Nations and the European Union have accused Colombian forces of police brutality in attempting to quell the protests, the Biden administration is taking a more measured approach. Police, whether in the United States or Colombia, need to engage by certain rules and respect fundamental freedoms, and that s not a critique, said Juan González, National Security Council director for the Western Hemisphere.
Ex-Venezuelan official who helped feds in huge corruption case gets two years in prison Jay Weaver, The Miami Herald
May 6 A former top financial officer in Venezuela s state-owned oil company was sentenced to two years and four months in prison Wednesday after admitting that he played a supporting role in allowing wealthy Venezuelan kleptocrats to make loans to the government entity that yielded fortunes for them.
Abraham Edgardo Ortega, the former executive director of financial planning at Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), admitted he accepted more than $12 million in bribes that were secretly wired to U.S. and other financial institutions. Ortega, who was facing about five years in prison, was given a significant sentence reduction by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams because he was the first Venezuelan official to cooperate with federal authorities in a massive $1.2 billion money-laundering conspiracy case.