Category Archives: Human Rights Violations United Nations

Operation No Safe Haven V

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If you see a Democrat, ask them what they know about this operation and have them explain it to you please. Let just see if they get it right, OR if they know about it at all….

BTW, have you seen this guy? Martinez-Rojas, Severiano

Summary: 

ATLANTA – On May 21, 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Atlanta and the FBI conducted search and arrest warrants for several individuals suspected of human trafficking.

Since 2006, Severiano Martinez-Rojas, along with family members Arturo Rojas-Coyotl, Odilon Martinez-Rojas, Daniel Garcia-Tepal and others, all from Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, conspired and brought multiple women into the United States from Mexico and Guatemala, all for the purpose of forcing them to engage in prostitution.

Eight victims from Mexico and Guatemala were rescued during the course of the investigation.

Odilon Martinez-Rojas and Rojas-Coyotl have been sentenced to 21 years and 16 years in prison, respectively. Severiano Martinez-Rojas is believed to have returned to Mexico prior to the warrant execution and remains a fugitive in this case.

***

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 39 fugitives – 30 males and nine females – sought for their roles in known or suspected human rights violations during a nationwide operation that took place from Aug. 27 to 29.

The ICE National Fugitive Operations Program in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, and the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, worked with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal (ERO) Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Newark, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco field offices to arrest these fugitives.

The foreign nationals arrested during this operation all have outstanding removal orders and are subject to repatriation to their countries of origin. Of the 39 known or suspected human rights violators arrested during Operation No Safe Haven V, 16 individuals are also criminal aliens in the U.S. with convictions for crimes including, but not limited to, domestic violence, driving under the influence of liquor, drug distribution, firearm possession, grand theft, reckless endangerment, robbery, fraud and theft. Their countries of origin include: El Salvador, Guatemala, China, Liberia, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. This operation more than doubled the number of known or suspected human rights violators arrested during the first nationwide No Safe Haven operation, which took place in September 2014.

“ICE will not allow war criminals and human rights abusers to use the U.S. as a safe haven,” said Acting Director Matthew Albence. “We will never stop looking for them and we will never cease seeking justice for the victims of their crimes.”

Those arrested across the country included:

  • Fourteen individuals from Central America implicated in numerous human rights violations against civilians, to include the capture, arrest and/or transport of civilians who were subsequently mistreated, and in some cases, beaten, electrocuted, and killed;
  • Four known or suspected human rights violators from China, complicit in collaborating with the government to assist in forced abortions and sterilizations against victims;
  • Four individuals from West Africa connected to a range of atrocities, including civilian massacres, mutilations, recruitment of child soldiers, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights violations.
  • An individual from Europe implicated in human rights abuses against political opponents through work with a security agency.

ICE is committed to identifying, investigating, prosecuting and removing known or suspected human rights violators who seek a safe haven in the United States. ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) investigates human rights violators who try to evade justice by seeking shelter in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, severe violations of religious freedom, female genital mutilation/cutting and the use or recruitment of child soldiers. These individuals may use fraudulent identities or falsified documents to enter the country in an attempt to blend into communities in the United States.

Members of the public who have information about foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes are urged to contact ICE by calling the toll-free ICE tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also email [email protected] or complete ICE’s online tip form.

The HRVWCC was established in 2009 to further ICE’s efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the United States. The HRVWCC leverages the expertise of a select group of agents, lawyers, intelligence and research specialists, historians and analysts who direct the agency’s broader enforcement efforts against these offenders.

Since 2003, ICE has arrested more than 415 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders against and physically removed more than 990 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States. Additionally, ICE has facilitated the departure of an additional 152 such individuals from the United States.

Currently, ICE has more than 170 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,600 leads and removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 95 different countries. Since 2003, the HRVWCC has issued more than 75,000 lookouts for individuals from more than 110 countries and stopped over 300 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S.

ICE credits the success of this operation to the efforts of the U.S. National Central Bureau-Interpol Washington.

President Trump, As Long as You are Declassifying…

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Providing declassification authority to AG William Barr on all things Russia investigation is a great thing. Patriotic Americans need to understand all the abuses of power that were applied by Democrat operatives since your nomination.

Then as long as there is the matter of Israel and Iran that continues to fester and maintain a political as well as militant component, there are at least two suggestions noted below that will for sure be favorable to your foreign policy and will likely have some positive outcomes for domestic policy.

Let’s go back to 2016 and 2017 shall we? Congressman Louis Gohmert of Texas was part of a hearing where then Eric Holder was the witness. At one point, Gohmert demanded that Holder declassify and release the Holyland Foundation trial documents. ALL OF THEM. tic toc…

Since then, Gohmert is still ringing the bell. He continues to plea for more attention to the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR so that a legitimate status can be attached to black list those organizations.

So as long as Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib continue the path to attack Israel, consider Gohmert’s presentations.

In both House floor presentations, Congressman Gohmert lays out a cogent argument and rightly so. You can bet that ‘The Squad’ and Speaker Pelosi would certainly feel the political pain. The media? Yes, popcorn ready.

Now, on the Iran component. To remind the reader, there was once a DEA mission called Operation Cassandra. This was a multiple agency investigation with major opportunities to indict so many both at home and abroad. This mission to continue to completion was killed by President Obama because it would have complicated the Obama/Kerry quest to see the JCPOA through to the end. Frankly, Operation Cassandra had many piece parts including Bowe Bergdahl and the Afghanistan thing. Then should also take a long look at Bruce Ohr at the DoJ and his work assignments at the time.

January 7th, 2018 Operation Cassandra Is Awan Contra - YouTube (in full disclosure, I have done several interviews with former DEA Special Agent, Derek Maltz on Operation Cassandra)

For some basic details on Operation Cassandra, note below in part:

In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.

The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

They followed cocaine shipments, tracked a river of dirty cash, and traced what they believed to be the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.

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The Justice Department declined requests by Project Cassandra and other authorities to file criminal charges against major players such as Hezbollah’s high-profile envoy to Iran, a Lebanese bank that allegedly laundered billions in alleged drug profits, and a central player in a U.S.-based cell of the Iranian paramilitary Quds force. And the State Department rejected requests to lure high-value targets to countries where they could be arrested.

Of course there is more Mr. President. However, if you order release of just these two files in full on a well timed schedule it will play well in your favor and be an excellent counter-measure against the Pelosi lead House, the media, restoring some law and order and give a huge lift to John Bolton and Mike Pompeo’s good work.

 

North Korea Stole $2 billion for its WMD programs

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Primer: North Korea has launched 4 rounds of missiles in less than 2 weeks. Talks between the United States and North Korea have stalled. The missiles tested during the recent launches are short range, however can reach South Korea and can travel as far as an estimated 400 miles. These test missiles allegedly are very advanced such they are being advertised as having the abilities to evade missile defense systems. Additionally, each launch took place from a different ground location.

Image result for kim jong un missile launches

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programs using “widespread and increasingly sophisticated” cyber attacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday.

Pyongyang also “continued to enhance its nuclear and missile programmes although it did not conduct a nuclear test or ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) launch,” said the report to the U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee by independent experts monitoring compliance over six months.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the report, which was submitted to the Security Council committee last week.

The experts said North Korea “used cyberspace to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income.” They also used cyberspace to launder the stolen money, the report said.

“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programmes, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars,” the report said.

North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Reconnaissance General Bureau is a top North Korean military intelligence agency.

The U.N. experts said North Korea’s attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges allowed it “to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector.”

The Security Council has unanimously imposed sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Council has banned exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capped imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

U.S. President Donald Trump has met with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un three times, most recently in June when he became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.

They agreed to resume stalled talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. The talks have yet to resume and in July and early August, North Korea carried out three short-range missiles tests in eight days.

The U.N. report was completed before last week’s missile launches by North Korea, but noted that “missile launches in May and July enhanced its overall ballistic missile capabilities.”

The U.N. experts said that despite the diplomatic efforts, their “investigations show continued violations” of U.N. sanctions.

“For example, the DPRK continued to violate sanctions through ongoing illicit ship-to-ship transfers and procurement of WMD-related items and luxury goods,” the U.N. report said.

When Russia Helps N Korea Cheat on Sanctions, What to Do

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Primer: Do you wonder what Russia’s votes on the UNSC really do to help North Korea? Do you wonder about the 40,000+ North Korean slave laborers in Russia add to the North Korean economy each year? About $200 million. How about the Russian oil pipeline that goes through North Korea? What about the rail system between the two countries and how that helps North Korea skirt sanctions with illicit goods transportation? Then there is the alleged legitimate navy and fishing fleets between Russia and North Korea. Money? Or the weekly air flight service from Vladivostok to Pyongyang. Or how Russia provides internet service to North Korea in addition to China, known as SatGate and the fiber optic lines that run along the rail system. Check front companies in China, Singapore and the banking system known as Dalcombank or just flying cash twice a week.

Rajin, North Korea Image result for rajin north korea  Image result for rajin north korea

FDD: The Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned a North Korean trading company official for helping Pyongyang evade U.S. and UN sanctions through illicit activity in Vietnam. The designation, which arrived in the brief interval between two North Korean missile tests in less than a week, suggests that Washington understands the importance of investigating and disrupting North Korea’s extensive overseas illicit networks.

Treasury’s latest target is Kim Su Il, who works for a Vietnam-based trading company on behalf of North Korea’s Munitions Industry Department, which the U.S. and UN have both sanctioned. According to Treasury, Kim helped export UN-sanctioned goods such as anthracite coal, titanium ore concentrate, and other raw materials from North Korea to Vietnam. Both anthracite coal and titanium ore are among the top exports that fund the regime’s illicit activities. Treasury also found that Kim Su Il helped charter ships and export Vietnamese products to North Korea, as well as to China and other undisclosed countries.

Kim Su Il’s designation is a reminder that North Korea’s overseas networks continue to thrive despite sanctions. In January, The Wall Street Journalreported that up to six Chinese-owned vessels transported North Korean coal between North Korea and Vietnam throughout 2018. In March 2018, the UN Panel of Experts also found that North Korean coal shipments to Vietnam go as far back as January 2017 – eight months before the UN Security Council’s comprehensive coal ban on North Korea went into effect. This persistent trade affirms Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Marshall Billingslea’s assessment in 2017 that coal “has been the center of North Korea’s revenue generation” for many years.

In March 2019, the same UN Panel of Experts exposed North Korea’s numerous overseas illicit money-making schemes, which employ networks of front companies, North Korean government workers, and local banks. For example, in Malaysia, North Korea’s intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, operated two companies that provided revenue to Pyongyang: the Malaysia-Korea Partners Group and Global Communications.

The UN Panel also found that foreign governments were applying “insufficient scrutiny” on the activities of North Korea’s overseas banking and government representatives, thereby enabling these company networks to thrive. The lax monitoring has ultimately allowed Pyongyang’s representatives to conduct financial transactions across numerous borders. Chinese banks in particular have been key enablers of North Korea’s actions.

Treasury provided robust evidence of this lax oversight last month when it sanctioned the Russian Financial Society (RFS) for helping North Korea evade sanctions. This designation revealed how a U.S.-sanctioned North Korean banking representative in Moscow exploited local financial service providers, specifically RFS, to conduct business for sanctioned North Korean companies. The incident showed that designating only the North Korean nationals working abroad is not enough. Rather, Washington also should target the banks and financial institutions that allow North Korean government officials based overseas to thrive.

Treasury’s next steps therefore should focus on investigating Kim Su Il’s local network of companies, individuals, and banks. Closing these gaps in enforcement is an indispensable step for maximizing the impact of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

UN Report of Killing Squads and Deaths in Venezuela

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Primer:

Venezuelan security forces have been sending death squads to commit extrajudicial killings of young men, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday. The crime scenes are then staged to make it look like the victims were resisting arrest.

Caracas has said that about 5,287 people died last year when they refused to be detained by officers, and that this has been the case for a further 1,569 through the middle of May this year. However, the UN report suggests that many of these deaths were actually extrajudicial executions.

The report relays the accounts of 20 families, who say that masked men dressed in black from the Special Actions Forces (FAES) arrived at their homes in black vehicles without license plates. They then broke into their houses, assaulted the women and girls and stole belongings.

“They would separate young men from other family members before shooting them,” the report said.

“In every case, witnesses reported how FAES manipulated the crime scene and evidence. They would plant arms and drugs and fire their weapons against the walls or in the air to suggest a confrontation and to show the victim had ‘resisted authority.'” Read more here.

Venezuelan Authorities Seize US-Made Weapons Shipment ... photo

Enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

41st session of the Human Rights Council

Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet

5 July 2019

Mr President,
Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,

As requested by Council resolution 39/1, the Office has submitted a report on the human rights crisis in Venezuela.

In March, my staff conducted a technical visit to the country. Human rights officers also made nine visits to interview Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Spain.

Additionally, I was able to visit Caracas two weeks ago – the first official mission by a High Commissioner for Human Rights.  I met with President Nicolás Maduro and several Government ministers and officials. I also met the president of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General and the Ombudsman. I held discussions with the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as well as Members of Parliament, and the President of the National Constituent Assembly.

I also had meetings with representatives of the Catholic Church, the business sector, academia, trade unions, human rights organisations, the diplomatic community, the United Nations country team, and approximately 200 victims.

Let me begin this update on a positive note. I am hopeful that the access which I was granted – together with the authorities’ subsequent acceptance of a continuing presence of two human rights officers to conduct monitoring, and commence providing technical assistance and advice – signify the beginning of positive engagement on the country’s many human rights issues.

However, as our report makes clear, essential institutions and the rule of law in Venezuela have been profoundly eroded. The exercise of freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly, and the right to participate in public life, entail a risk of reprisals and repression. Our report notes attacks against actual or perceived opponents and human rights defenders, ranging from threats and smear campaigns to arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and killings and enforced disappearance.

Excessive and lethal force has repeatedly been used against protestors. My Office has also documented excessive use of force in the context of security operations by the Special Action Forces, with multiple killings, mainly of young men. Many may constitute extrajudicial killings, and should be fully investigated, with accountability of perpetrators, and guarantees of non-recurrence.

The death in custody six days ago of a retired Navy captain – allegedly after torture – is deeply regrettable. I note the opening of an investigation and the arrest of two military counter-intelligence officers in this context. However, there is a pattern of torture reports in Venezuela in the context of arbitrary detention. The authorities must ensure full investigation in accordance with international standards, as well as accountability and, where relevant, remedy for all cases of alleged torture.

Mr President,

The Venezuelan people are enduring an economic breakdown. Since 2013, the cumulative contraction of GDP has been 44.3%, and cumulative inflation since 2013 reached a dramatic 2,866,670% at the end of January 2019 – 2.8 million percent. Over the past two years, public revenue has dropped with the drastic reduction of oil exports. Figures published by the Central Bank of Venezuela on 28 May 2019 show that key economic indicators began to decline well before August 2017. Regardless, the latest economic sanctions are further exacerbating this situation, given that most of the country’s foreign exchange earnings derive from oil exports, many of which are linked to the US market. In addition, the effects of these sanctions appear to be affecting  the State’s ability to provide basic health service to the population.

Humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other actors has been gradually accepted by the Government. However, the scale of the crisis is such that it is difficult to fully respond to the needs of the people.

The situation has had a negative impact on people’s livelihoods – and indeed, their lifespan, particularly of those most vulnerable. In the course of my visit I met many people who are suffering. The minimum wage – which is estimated at around $7 USD per month  cannot cover even 5% of the basic food basket for a family of five people. Deaths from malnutrition have been reported, although data on this, as many other, topics has not been released.

Venezuela is a country with many valuable resources, including formidable oil and gold reserves, a young and vibrant population, key location and systems which for many years provided free universal healthcare, education and other public services. The current and dramatic crisis has dramatic impact on economic, social and cultural rights as well as political and civil rights.

Many public services have all but collapsed, including transportation, electricity and water. The healthcare sector is in critical condition. The non-availability of basic medication and equipment is causing preventable deaths, while non-availability of contraception forces many women to bear children they will not be able to adequately care for. An assessment of humanitarian needs conducted by OCHA in March found that an estimated seven million people in Venezuela need humanitarian assistance: one quarter of the population.

Hunger and deprivation have led many to become migrants or refugees. Many are forced to leave in ill-health, without economic resources of any kind, and their human rights protection must be considered a matter of urgency.

I am also concerned about the situation of indigenous peoples in Venezuela. In particular, I note loss of control over their traditional lands, territories, and resources; militarization; violence; lack of access to adequate food and water; and the effects of mining.

Members of indigenous communities are reportedly being exploited in conditions of slavery for the illegal extraction of gold.  There has been violence against some indigenous authorities and leaders, and statements by various officials have been reported, suggesting an intention to eliminate members of the Pemón community who oppose the Government.

As I said in Caracas, to all political leaders, the only way out of this crisis is to come together, in dialogue. I encourage the Government to view the opposition and human rights defenders as partners in the common cause of human rights and justice, and to plant the seeds for a durable political agreement that leads to reconciliation.

Among other points, the Government has agreed to allow us to carry out an evaluation of the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture, including a commitment to full access to all centres of detention. I look forward to the honouring of this and other commitments.

We will also conduct an assessment of major obstacles to access to justice. Furthermore, the authorities have stated they will engage more substantively with international human rights bodies. In particular, they have agreed to accept ten visits from the Council’s Special Procedures experts over the next two years.

We have also been consistently advocating for the release of all those who are currently in detention for acts of non-violent dissent. Prior to my visit, three detainees were released. Subsequently, 59 Colombian nationals, including one woman, who had been arbitrarily detained since 2016 were also released. And just yesterday, 22 detainees were also released. We welcome these releases and encourage the authorities to release others detained for the exercise of their human rights.

Above all, as I expressed in my meetings with victims and their families, all Venezuelans have fundamental human rights. They deserve to enjoy those rights. I sincerely hope that the Office will be able to assist in improving the human rights situation in Venezuela.

The situation is complex, but the report contains clear, concrete recommendations for the way forward. I sincerely hope the authorities will take these recommendations in the constructive spirit in which they are made.

As I said in Caracas, the fate of more than 30 million Venezuelans rests on the leadership’s willingness and ability to put the human rights of the people ahead of any personal, ideological or political ambitions. It is for this Council and the international community to support them in this shared endeavour. We should all be able to agree that all Venezuelans deserve a better life, free from fear, and with access to adequate food, water, health-care, housing and all other basic human needs. For my part, I stand ready to accompany the people of Venezuela.

Thank you Mr President.