International
The majority of the Supreme Court rejects Bolsonaro’s appeals in the case of the coup d’état
The majority of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil rejected on Wednesday the appeals presented by former President Jair Bolsonaro to try to remove two judges within the framework of the process in which he is accused of leading a coup plot against the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The president of the Supreme Court, Luiz Roberto Barroso, who is an instructor in the trial, rejected Bolsonaro’s request to challenge two of the magistrates and most of the judges of the high court voted in the same direction, in a telematic session.
The defense of the Brazilian far-right leader claimed that magistrates Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino would not be impartial in the trial, because before assuming their positions in the STF they filed judicial complaints against Bolsonaro.
Barroso was the first of the eleven Supreme Court magistrates to publish his vote on these four appeals in the court’s electronic voting system and was seconded by at least five judges, which makes the decision irreversible.
The two magistrates involved cannot vote and the rest of the judges have until midnight on Thursday to rule on the appeals presented by Bolsonaro and others involved.
According to Barroso, Bolsonaro’s new appeals have no news with respect to previous petitions that he himself has already rejected, and requests for recusal from judges are not protected in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The majority of the Supreme Court also rejected the appeal of former minister Walter Braga Netto, a retired Army general accused of being one of the leaders of the coup plot, who requests the recusal of magistrate Alexandre de Moraes.
Braga Netto’s defense alleges that one of the charges is a plan to murder De Moraes, so this magistrate would have to challenge himself for not being able to be a judge and victim at the same time.
The First Chamber of the Supreme Court has already scheduled three extraordinary sessions for March 25 and 26 in which it will decide whether to accept the coup accusations against Bolsonaro and seven other defendants and whether to open criminal proceedings.
The complaint against Bolsonaro and his closest nucleus, filed in February by the Prosecutor’s Office, accused the former president and 33 other suspects of attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, armed criminal organization and coup d’état, among other crimes.
The conspiracy, according to the accusation, began after then-President Bolsonaro lost the October 2022 elections to the current president.
The coup plot would have first tried to prevent Lula’s inauguration and then led to the violent assault on the headquarters of the three powers of the State on January 8, 2023, a week after his inauguration, when thousands of ultras pressured the Army to overthrow the new Government.
International
Six killed, including baby, in armed attack near tourist beach in Ecuador
Six people, including a baby girl about two years old, were killed on Sunday in an armed attack near a tourist beach in southwestern Ecuador, police said. The shooting, carried out with rifles, also left three people wounded.
The incident took place in the coastal town of Puerto López, in the province of Manabí, a popular tourist destination known for whale watching. The attack occurred amid a surge of violence over the weekend that left at least nine people dead nationwide, according to local media reports.
“There are six fatalities and three injured,” Colonel William Acurio, the local police commander, told reporters on Sunday. He confirmed that one of the victims was a baby “approximately two years old.”
Authorities have not released further details about the motive behind the attack or whether arrests have been made.
International
Man accused of killing nine in Paramaribo dies by suicide in police custody
The man who killed nine people, including five children, on Saturday night in Paramaribo died by suicide while in custody, Suriname police confirmed in a statement on Monday.
The suspect, identified by the initials D.A., 43, “hanged himself inside a holding cell at the Keizerstraat police station” in the capital, Paramaribo, according to the official report.
Police said the man sustained leg injuries during his arrest and was taken to a hospital before being transferred to the detention facility on Sunday night. Authorities did not provide further details on the circumstances surrounding his death.
International
Winter storm disrupts holiday travel, forcing 1,500 flight cancellations in the U.S.
Airlines canceled around 1,500 flights across the United States during the peak Christmas travel season after warnings of a severe winter storm and forecasts of heavy snowfall in the Midwest and Northeast. An additional 5,900 flights were delayed due to adverse weather conditions.
More than 40 million Americans were under snowstorm warnings or weather advisories one day after Christmas. Meanwhile, another 30 million people faced flood or storm alerts in California, where an atmospheric river triggered intense rainfall.
New York City was bracing for up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) of snow overnight, which would mark its heaviest snowfall in four years. Cold weather was expected to persist through the weekend in the nation’s largest city. According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, airports in the New York area recorded about 850 flight cancellations.
Six killed, including baby, in armed attack near tourist beach in Ecuador
Man accused of killing nine in Paramaribo dies by suicide in police custody
Winter storm disrupts holiday travel, forcing 1,500 flight cancellations in the U.S.
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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