San Juan, Puerto Rico
Plea for U.S. crime aid: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week that she has promised Puerto Rico federal help in fighting the drug trafficking that has caused a steep rise in violent crime, but she offered no details. In the past few years, since Mexico began its war on drugs and the U.S. beefed up border controls, drug gangs have routed some of their traffic through Puerto Rico. There have been more than 500 murders in the U.S. territory so far this year alone, 25 percent more than over the same period last year. Puerto Rican Gov. Luis Fortuño said he told Napolitano that if Miami or New York had a similar crime rate it would be “a national scandal.” As if to underscore his point, the weekend after Napolitano left was the island’s bloodiest all year, with 19 murders.
Rio de Janeiro
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Evangelicals on the march: In a sign of the exploding popularity of evangelical Christianity, at least 1 million evangelicals turned out for this year’s “March for Jesus” in Brazil. Over the past decade, Catholics have dropped from 74 percent of the country’s population to 65 percent, while Protestants have jumped from 15 percent to 22 percent, mostly evangelicals and Pentecostals. These sects are spreading rapidly through megachurches, the Internet, and an army of pastors. The Assemblies of God alone has 50,000 ordained pastors in Brazil, compared with some 25,000 Catholic priests.
Santiago, Chile
Colonels charged with murder: Two former Chilean air force colonels were arrested this week on charges of torturing to death the father of former President Michelle Bachelet. Gen. Alberto Bachelet, who was loyal to President Salvador Allende, was imprisoned in 1973 after Augusto Pinochet’s military coup, and he died the following year. Ramón Cáceres Jorquera and Edgar Benjamín Cevallos Jones were charged with torture that led to the 51-year-old’s death. Bachelet was repeatedly interrogated by officers who had previously served under him. Michelle Bachelet, who now heads the U.N. women’s agency, and her mother were tortured before being allowed to leave the country in 1975
