Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean: The post-Venezuelan-referendum edition

With Hugo in the headlines again, the Carnival goes on.

If you have a chance, please listen to last night's 1/2hr podcast on the Venezuelan referendum.

SPANISH LANGUAGE BLOG OF THE WEEK:
Basta de apartheid en Cuba

POSTS ON LATIN AMERICA IN GENERAL;
How to enjoy traveling abroad

Venezuela: A Political Storm Rages Over the Andes

MS-13 Creeps Into Canada: Documentary videos at LiveLeak.

Hugo and Raul, Chew on This ... OohRah!

ARGENTINA
Really intact Dinosaur found

ARUBA:
Brothers in Holloway case walk away from jails -- again

COLOMBIA
Force, Not Talk

Proof of FARC captives' survival

Is S. America a terrorist incubator?

CUBA

"His family in Puerto Rico had to send him the medicine"

Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty

Are you afraid of ghosts?

Media: Cuba is a Demcracy, Right?

ECUADOR
Ecuador's Correa's communist freak show in Montecristi

JAMAICA
This is not news

MARTINIQUE:
Tremor in Martinique

NICARAGUA
Nica news for Nov 27

Nica news for Dec 1

PANAMA
Thinking about Santa and Panama

PUERTO RICO
Beauty queen 'wasn't pepper sprayed'

VENEZUELA:
The Limits of 21st-Century Socialism

Via Human Rights Foundation,
Caracas Nine:

HRF Seeks Protection for Leader of Student Movement in Venezuela; Yon Goicoechea is "Caracas Nine" Dissident #2

The Path to Self-Destruction

Here are a few links to recent posts on Venezuela:
On Election Eve, Chavez Ally Turns Against Him

US Senator Carl Levin Rejects Chavez Allegations of Interference

Venezuela Loses Its Mind - And Its Freedom!

Chavez cuts ties to Columbia, Threatens to expel US Diplomat

The Left Begins Venezuelan Black (DGI/DISIP-driven) Op

Chavez's Ex Apologizes for His Government

Is Chavez Hurt by His Incessant Insults?

Why Chavez is a Leftist Hero

Useful idiocy personified

The President in his Labrynth

Hugo Chavez: The Musharaff of South America

Hugo Chavez's Most Dangerous Enemy? It's Chavez Himself

Hugo Chavez and his Allies are State Sponsors of Terror

Al-Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez reporting from Venezuela finds discontent among Chavez's base:


BLOGGING ON THE CARNIVAL:
A colombo-americana's perspective
ECrisis

Prior posts and roundups from the last 7 days:
Hugo's meltdown, at IBD
Wednesday: Countdown to Tyranny
Thursday: Today's Countdown to Tyranny
The "Blame the CIA Game" is back!
Friday: Countdown to Tyranny: Last-minute Chavista Propaganda Offensive
Countdown to Tyranny: The day before the vote
Election day roundup



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MS-13 gang members arrested in Princeton

Last August I posted about the MS-13 gang's connection to the Newark murders of three young college students in Newark.

In yesterday's Princeton Packet (I'm including the full article since the Packet tends to not keep their articles up permanently):
Night of burglaries in Princeton nets arrests
Three gang members are charged

Princeton Borough Police followed silently for more than two hours the night of Oct. 19 as three individuals allegedly cased several homes before being arrested and charged in connection with at least 10 burglaries in the borough, the township and on the campus of Princeton University.

All three suspects are undocumented illegal aliens, and evidence has linked all three with the MS-13 street gang, police said, in announcing the arrests this week.

Saul Eduardo Palma-Chajon, 22, whose last known address was in Princeton, and Byron Diaz, 18, of Princeton, and a 16-year-old male Princeton resident were charged with numerous counts of burglary, theft and criminal mischief as well as conspiracy to commit burglary, receiving stolen property and being armed while committing a burglary.

Mr. Palma-Chajon and Mr. Diaz were also charged with employing a juvenile in a crime, and the juvenile was also charged with juvenile delinquency.

Police said the series of residential burglaries over the last several weeks involved homes being entered with the use of force during the late afternoon or evening hours.
Once inside, the suspects stole merchandise, including jewelry, laptop computers, cameras, iPods and credit cards.

Princeton Borough Chief Anthony Federico said two burglaries in the borough occurred on Gordon Way, and two occurred on Hamilton and Vandeventer avenues, respectively.

At least one of the two burglaries in the township occurred on Deer Path, and at least three more occurred on the university campus, he said.

Although much of the stolen items have been recovered and claimed by the victims, a substantial amount of stolen merchandise has not yet been linked to any victim, and police are still determining how many burglaries occurred, Chief Federico said.

As part of the investigation, a team of officers engaged in a burglary surveillance detail on the east end of the borough on Oct. 19, a Friday night.

At 8:30 p.m., officers began to observe the group of three males acting suspiciously near Hamilton Avenue, before they entered yards on a number of properties and walked around to allegedly “case” the homes, police said.

For the next two hours, the surveillance unit followed the group while they continued to enter yards in the northeast and southeast sections of town and occasionally split up, police said.

Although they did not attempt to break into a house, the group was stopped by police at 10:30 p.m.

Two of the three individuals gave police fake names and identification, police said.

Further investigation revealed that all three individuals possessed property that had been reported stolen from recent burglaries, police said.

Subsequent residential searches in the borough yielded stolen items from at least eight different recently reported burglaries and thefts in the borough, the township and on the university campus.

Borough police have notified Immigration Customs Enforcement to advise the agency of the arrests of the individuals, all of whom are from Guatemala.

Charges are also pending within Princeton Township and within the Princeton University Campus.

Mr. Palma-Chajon's bail has been set at $1,000,000 cash, and Mr. Diaz' bail has been set at $500,000 cash.

The juvenile is being held at the Mercer County Youth Detention Center.
Chief Federico said it was unusual that most of the stolen property was recovered.

"Most burglars will get rid of the stuff really quickly," he said. "It's unusual when we get back this amount of property."

Any victim of a recent burglary or theft in the Princeton area should call the Princeton Borough Police Detective Bureau at 609-924-4141 to view the recovered property to see if it belongs to them.

More posts and links here. Background: Nationwide crackdown on vicious gang nets 10 in N.J.



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MS-13 and the Newark murders

I have blogged in the past about the MS-13, a.k.a. the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Back in 2005 there was a huge nationwide crackdown leading to arrests of gang members around the country and here in NJ.

On Saturday August 4 four young people, including three students at Delaware State University, were shot in the head at close range in a school parking lot in Newark. Deshon Harvey, 20, Terrance "T.J." Aeriel, 18, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, were killed that night. The surviving victim is helping police with the case.

Newark is a "sanctuary city",

According to 'Lou Dobbs Tonight', "Newark's sanctuary policies protect illegal aliens, even those charged with commission of crimes."

Jose Lachira Carranza, a 28 yr old illegal immigrant from Peru, has been charged with the murders. At the time of the murders Carranza was out on $150,000 bail in a child rape case of a girl who had been in his care since she was four years old.

According to the NY Times

An illegal immigrant from Peru, Jose Lachira Carranza, 28, possessed of a temper and a growing rap sheet, appears to have directed the group of a half-dozen or more — answered to like a boss. The group pulled off petty stickups in the elevators and parking lots of the sprawling Ivy Hill Park Apartments in the West Ward, according to interviews with relatives, friends and victims, who say the crew extorted people for quick cash, sometimes slipped through apartment doors cracked barely open by frightened residents.

Over the years, Mr. Carranza and Rodolfo Godinez, 24, who is Ms. Gomez’s other son, were each arrested at least twice on serious charges. But together they also carried off crimes under the radar, their victims say. On one occasion, they shook down Anglade Montel, a 33-year-old father of two babies, for $30, he said, adding that he was too terrified to ever call the police.

Godinez is an illegal alien from Nicaragua who had been ordered deported on May 5, 1993.

Newark's police director goes through great pains to emphasize that

"At this point there is nothing in this case that indicates that this has to do with a gang angle, gang initiation, or gang violence,"

However, Dan Riehl (via Larwyn) has been looking at one of the suspects' MySpace page, and the connection is clear. The suspect is a 15-yr old living in Morristown. At least one of the victims in the Aug. 4 attack in Newark was sliced with what the lone survivor told police was a machete, a "trademark" of the MS-13.

New Jersey is among the places where local authorities aren't required to check the immigration status of someone arrested. Mike at Flopping Aces points out that Jon Corzine, the governor of NJ, announced a few days after the murders, that "we have a responsibility to look after the human rights and civil rights of each and every immigrant." As Mike points out,

Corzine's emphasis on "civil rights" which apparently shielded child raping mass murderers must have left mourners at the funerals of the victims somewhat hollow when they heard him say "These children deserved better."