LA PAZ: Bolivia sacked 702 members of the military on Thursday in a quick, firm response to a march by non-commissioned officers protesting alleged discrimination against indigenous members.
The military acted after about 2,000 sergeants from all services turned out for the protest in uniform, singing marching songs as they paraded through downtown La Paz.
The protest was set off by the sacking of 13 non-commissioned officers on Monday for refusing to obey orders and for mutiny.
But the strikers’ grievances extend to treatment of the mainly Aymara and Quechua non-commissioned officers by higher-ups.
Court rejects ex-cop’s extradition
MADRID: A top Spanish court yesterday ruled against extraditing a former policeman to Argentina, where a judge wants to try him for alleged torture during the Franco dictatorship.
The National Court, the top criminal court in the country, said Jesus Munecas’s alleged crimes occurred too long ago.
The court also justified the decision on the grounds that Munecas has no link to Argentina.
The former policeman, 75, was the subject of an extradition request by an Argentine judge under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows certain human rights abuses to be pursued and tried elsewhere if the country in which they occurred does not investigate.
Ecuador expels 20 Pentagon staff
QUITO: Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has ordered 20 Pentagon officers and staff to leave the country, a US embassy official said yesterday. Correa ordered the US Department of Defence personnel out of the country on April 7, said Jeffrey Weinshenker, a spokesman at the US embassy in Quito.
The Pentagon staff have until the end of April to leave the country.
In a statement, Weinshenker said the United States respects Ecuador’s right as a “sovereign” nation to expel the US military staff, but regrets that the move “will severely limit our bilateral cooperation on issues related to security.”
REUTERS
