#Daniel Duque-Perez

[otchiphop]

Interview: Lane-Harry x Ike Campbell on new single, upcoming projects and more

Gold Coast rapper/producer duo Lane-Harry x Ike Campbell have just dropped a sharp new single, The Dash, presenting an exciting new sound in the process. (more…)

[digitaltourbus]

Daniel Duque-Perez (ex- The Griswolds) - GEAR MASTERS (Revisited) Ep. 103

[fullspectrum-cbd-oil]

New Guatemalan President Talks Migration, Security With U.S. Before Taking Office

Guatemala’s new president discussed with Trump administration officials how to slow illegal immigration and improve border security in a meeting before he was due to take office on Tuesday, as Washington pushes him to accept an asylum agreement.

A conservative former surgeon and ex-prison chief, Alejandro Giammattei, 63, ran for top office three times before his victory in an August runoff on a tough-on-crime platform that included returning the death penalty.

“We will bring back the peace this country so dearly needs,” he told reporters on Monday, promising to overhaul the Central American nation’s security forces and restructure ministries.

But at the top of his to-do list will be a decision on whether to roll back or expand an agreement with the United States forged by outgoing President Jimmy Morales that makes Guatemala a buffer zone to reduce U.S. asylum claims.

Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, part of the U.S. delegation headed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for the inauguration, was expected to push Giammattei to expand the agreement to include Mexicans.

In a sign of the urgency of the relationship, Giammattei met Wolf and Ross in his first bilateral meeting on Tuesday morning, hours before he was due to be sworn in. The U.S. embassy tweeted that Wolf talked with him about containing illegal immigration and improving border security.

Giammattei said in a tweet that he and Ross discussed investment and economic growth to stem immigration.

Neither side has revealed additional details. Giammattei later met Colombian President Ivan Duque.

Guatemala is one of Latin America’s poorest and most unequal nations, with poverty increasing since 2000 despite strong economic growth rates, according to the World Bank. U.S. officials have previously threatened it with economic consequences if it fails to accept the Asylum Cooperation Agreement.

Giammattei, who had previously suggested he would seek to change the agreement, appeared to soften his stance on Monday, saying he had not yet seen the deal’s details.

Guatemala is central to U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating efforts to end illegal immigration and asylum claims from people making their way to the southwestern U.S. border.

Under the deal, implemented in November, the United States sends Hondurans and El Salvadorans seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to Guatemala to ask for refuge there instead.

As of Friday, 128 Salvadoran and Honduran asylum seekers had been sent as part of the agreement, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute. Only a handful have applied for asylum in a country that is itself a major source of U.S. bound migrants. Others have returned home.

CRIME AND CORRUPTION

Giammattei takes office as the nation suffers from the effects of drug trafficking on politics and distrust sowed by last year’s forced departure of a United Nations-backed anti-corruption body.

Another looming decision will be whether to act on the recommendation of a congressional panel last week that judges and investigators who worked with the anti-corruption body, known as CICIG, be arrested.

CICIG helped topple sitting President Otto Perez Molina on corruption charges in 2015 and put dozens of politicians and businessmen behind bars, before a backlash led Morales to drive the body from Guatemala in September.

Morales, himself investigated by the agency on election financing charges he denies, is due to be sworn into the Central American parliament a few hours after he leaves office, in a position offering him immunity.

On the bright side, Guatemala’s homicide rate is down – to 22 murders per 100,000 residents in 2018, from 45 per 100,000 in 2009.

But the freedom with which drug traffickers influence politics is a challenge. Ahead of last year’s election, presidential candidate and occasional Morales ally Mario Estrada was arrested in Miami on charges of seeking funding from drug cartels and conspiring to assassinate rivals. 

“We realized that narco-trafficking here is among the most intense in the region,” Luis Hernandez Azmitia, an outgoing congressional representative of the Movimiento Reformador party told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu, additional reporting by Jeff Abbott in Guatemala City and Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Richard Chang)

from IJR https://ift.tt/30noR5v via IFTTT

[party-hard-or-die]

Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia headed for its most divisive presidential race in decades after rightwinger Ivan Duque won Sunday’s first-round vote, triggering a runoff with leftist Gustavo Petro that could upset a historic peace deal or derail business friendly reforms.

Right wing presidential candidate Ivan Duque greets supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

It was the first time in the modern history of the conservative South American nation that a leftist candidate had reached the second round of a presidential vote, a prospect that has spooked some investors in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy in recent weeks.

Duque, a 41-year-old former official of the Washington-based InterAmerican Development Bank, was the convincing winner of the ballot with 39 percent of votes, ahead of Petro, an outspoken former mayor of Bogota, on 25 percent, in line with polls.

However, Duque’s pledge to overhaul the 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by scrapping immunity for those convicted of crimes has worried many Colombians, weary after five decades of conflict that killed about 200,000 people.

Though outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for forging the accord, it deeply divided the nation of more than 50 million people and was narrowly rejected in a popular vote before Congress finally approved a modified version.

Petro, and three other losing candidates, have backed the deal, meaning Duque may need to moderate his position to attract wavering voters.

Center-left mathematician Sergio Fajardo, who came third, with 24 percent of votes, declined to endorse either candidate for the second round, saying his supporters would make up their own minds.

Political pundits in Colombia said that if June’s vote went along ideological lines, the votes of the center-left could be enough for Petro to seriously challenge Duque, if he can dodge his rival’s accusations of radicalism.

“Petro was quite clearly behind Duque in the vote, so that will reassure the markets,” Camilo Perez, head of economic studies at Banco de Bogota. “But the fact that Fajardo was so close to Petro may generate nervousness, as his approach is probably closer to Petro’s and that could send votes his way.”

ARRAY OF CHALLENGES

The winner of the second round will face an intimidating array of challenges, from stubbornly low economic growth to threats to Colombia’s prized investment grade credit rating, besides difficulties in implementing the peace accord.

Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro speaks to supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Some areas abandoned by the FARC have suffered an increase in fighting between criminal gangs and a remaining guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), over valuable illegal mining and drug trafficking territories.

Colombia’s production of coca, the raw material for cocaine, tripled between 2012 and 2016, stirring concern in Washington.

Polls suggest the end of the FARC conflict has shifted voters’ priorities to inequality and corruption from security issues – opening the door to the left for the first time.

However, a growing crisis in neighboring socialist-run Venezuela, which has driven hundreds of thousands of desperate people to flee across the border, is a thorn in the side for Petro, with Duque’s camp saying he would plunge Colombia into a similar crisis.

Petro has promised to take power away from political and social elites he accuses of having stymied development, and to carry out a complete economic overhaul.

At his election night party in the capital, communist party militants waved red flags above the crowd, yet Petro struck a moderate tone as both he and Duque sought to attract centrist voters.

“When we talk about defeating poverty, we’re not talking about impoverishing the rich, but about enriching the poor,” said the bespectacled Petro, surrounded by family members.

However, in a country where oil and coal are the top export earners, Petro’s pledges to end extractive industries and shift the focus of state-run oil company Ecopetrol to renewable energy have dismayed business leaders.

“Our country has never lived such a polarized moment as this and Petro represents a huge danger, but we are going to beat him,” Mariana Riaño, a 21-year-old student, said at Duque’s celebration party at a conference center in Bogota.

(For graphic on Latin American elections, click: tmsnrt.rs/2wSwu9k)

Reporting by Helen Murphy, Nelson Bocanegra and Steven Grattan; Additional reporting by Dylan Baddour; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

The post Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2L2hZ4U via Breaking News

[newestbalance]

Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia headed for its most divisive presidential race in decades after rightwinger Ivan Duque won Sunday’s first-round vote, triggering a runoff with leftist Gustavo Petro that could upset a historic peace deal or derail business friendly reforms.

Right wing presidential candidate Ivan Duque greets supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

It was the first time in the modern history of the conservative South American nation that a leftist candidate had reached the second round of a presidential vote, a prospect that has spooked some investors in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy in recent weeks.

Duque, a 41-year-old former official of the Washington-based InterAmerican Development Bank, was the convincing winner of the ballot with 39 percent of votes, ahead of Petro, an outspoken former mayor of Bogota, on 25 percent, in line with polls.

However, Duque’s pledge to overhaul the 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by scrapping immunity for those convicted of crimes has worried many Colombians, weary after five decades of conflict that killed about 200,000 people.

Though outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for forging the accord, it deeply divided the nation of more than 50 million people and was narrowly rejected in a popular vote before Congress finally approved a modified version.

Petro, and three other losing candidates, have backed the deal, meaning Duque may need to moderate his position to attract wavering voters.

Center-left mathematician Sergio Fajardo, who came third, with 24 percent of votes, declined to endorse either candidate for the second round, saying his supporters would make up their own minds.

Political pundits in Colombia said that if June’s vote went along ideological lines, the votes of the center-left could be enough for Petro to seriously challenge Duque, if he can dodge his rival’s accusations of radicalism.

“Petro was quite clearly behind Duque in the vote, so that will reassure the markets,” Camilo Perez, head of economic studies at Banco de Bogota. “But the fact that Fajardo was so close to Petro may generate nervousness, as his approach is probably closer to Petro’s and that could send votes his way.”

ARRAY OF CHALLENGES

The winner of the second round will face an intimidating array of challenges, from stubbornly low economic growth to threats to Colombia’s prized investment grade credit rating, besides difficulties in implementing the peace accord.

Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro speaks to supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Some areas abandoned by the FARC have suffered an increase in fighting between criminal gangs and a remaining guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), over valuable illegal mining and drug trafficking territories.

Colombia’s production of coca, the raw material for cocaine, tripled between 2012 and 2016, stirring concern in Washington.

Polls suggest the end of the FARC conflict has shifted voters’ priorities to inequality and corruption from security issues – opening the door to the left for the first time.

However, a growing crisis in neighboring socialist-run Venezuela, which has driven hundreds of thousands of desperate people to flee across the border, is a thorn in the side for Petro, with Duque’s camp saying he would plunge Colombia into a similar crisis.

Petro has promised to take power away from political and social elites he accuses of having stymied development, and to carry out a complete economic overhaul.

At his election night party in the capital, communist party militants waved red flags above the crowd, yet Petro struck a moderate tone as both he and Duque sought to attract centrist voters.

“When we talk about defeating poverty, we’re not talking about impoverishing the rich, but about enriching the poor,” said the bespectacled Petro, surrounded by family members.

However, in a country where oil and coal are the top export earners, Petro’s pledges to end extractive industries and shift the focus of state-run oil company Ecopetrol to renewable energy have dismayed business leaders.

“Our country has never lived such a polarized moment as this and Petro represents a huge danger, but we are going to beat him,” Mariana Riaño, a 21-year-old student, said at Duque’s celebration party at a conference center in Bogota.

(For graphic on Latin American elections, click: tmsnrt.rs/2wSwu9k)

Reporting by Helen Murphy, Nelson Bocanegra and Steven Grattan; Additional reporting by Dylan Baddour; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

The post Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2L2hZ4U via Everyday News

[cleopatrarps]

Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia headed for its most divisive presidential race in decades after rightwinger Ivan Duque won Sunday’s first-round vote, triggering a runoff with leftist Gustavo Petro that could upset a historic peace deal or derail business friendly reforms.

Right wing presidential candidate Ivan Duque greets supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

It was the first time in the modern history of the conservative South American nation that a leftist candidate had reached the second round of a presidential vote, a prospect that has spooked some investors in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy in recent weeks.

Duque, a 41-year-old former official of the Washington-based InterAmerican Development Bank, was the convincing winner of the ballot with 39 percent of votes, ahead of Petro, an outspoken former mayor of Bogota, on 25 percent, in line with polls.

However, Duque’s pledge to overhaul the 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by scrapping immunity for those convicted of crimes has worried many Colombians, weary after five decades of conflict that killed about 200,000 people.

Though outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for forging the accord, it deeply divided the nation of more than 50 million people and was narrowly rejected in a popular vote before Congress finally approved a modified version.

Petro, and three other losing candidates, have backed the deal, meaning Duque may need to moderate his position to attract wavering voters.

Center-left mathematician Sergio Fajardo, who came third, with 24 percent of votes, declined to endorse either candidate for the second round, saying his supporters would make up their own minds.

Political pundits in Colombia said that if June’s vote went along ideological lines, the votes of the center-left could be enough for Petro to seriously challenge Duque, if he can dodge his rival’s accusations of radicalism.

“Petro was quite clearly behind Duque in the vote, so that will reassure the markets,” Camilo Perez, head of economic studies at Banco de Bogota. “But the fact that Fajardo was so close to Petro may generate nervousness, as his approach is probably closer to Petro’s and that could send votes his way.”

ARRAY OF CHALLENGES

The winner of the second round will face an intimidating array of challenges, from stubbornly low economic growth to threats to Colombia’s prized investment grade credit rating, besides difficulties in implementing the peace accord.

Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro speaks to supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Some areas abandoned by the FARC have suffered an increase in fighting between criminal gangs and a remaining guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), over valuable illegal mining and drug trafficking territories.

Colombia’s production of coca, the raw material for cocaine, tripled between 2012 and 2016, stirring concern in Washington.

Polls suggest the end of the FARC conflict has shifted voters’ priorities to inequality and corruption from security issues – opening the door to the left for the first time.

However, a growing crisis in neighboring socialist-run Venezuela, which has driven hundreds of thousands of desperate people to flee across the border, is a thorn in the side for Petro, with Duque’s camp saying he would plunge Colombia into a similar crisis.

Petro has promised to take power away from political and social elites he accuses of having stymied development, and to carry out a complete economic overhaul.

At his election night party in the capital, communist party militants waved red flags above the crowd, yet Petro struck a moderate tone as both he and Duque sought to attract centrist voters.

“When we talk about defeating poverty, we’re not talking about impoverishing the rich, but about enriching the poor,” said the bespectacled Petro, surrounded by family members.

However, in a country where oil and coal are the top export earners, Petro’s pledges to end extractive industries and shift the focus of state-run oil company Ecopetrol to renewable energy have dismayed business leaders.

“Our country has never lived such a polarized moment as this and Petro represents a huge danger, but we are going to beat him,” Mariana Riaño, a 21-year-old student, said at Duque’s celebration party at a conference center in Bogota.

(For graphic on Latin American elections, click: tmsnrt.rs/2wSwu9k)

Reporting by Helen Murphy, Nelson Bocanegra and Steven Grattan; Additional reporting by Dylan Baddour; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

The post Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2L2hZ4U via News of World

[dani-qrt]

Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia headed for its most divisive presidential race in decades after rightwinger Ivan Duque won Sunday’s first-round vote, triggering a runoff with leftist Gustavo Petro that could upset a historic peace deal or derail business friendly reforms.

Right wing presidential candidate Ivan Duque greets supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

It was the first time in the modern history of the conservative South American nation that a leftist candidate had reached the second round of a presidential vote, a prospect that has spooked some investors in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy in recent weeks.

Duque, a 41-year-old former official of the Washington-based InterAmerican Development Bank, was the convincing winner of the ballot with 39 percent of votes, ahead of Petro, an outspoken former mayor of Bogota, on 25 percent, in line with polls.

However, Duque’s pledge to overhaul the 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by scrapping immunity for those convicted of crimes has worried many Colombians, weary after five decades of conflict that killed about 200,000 people.

Though outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for forging the accord, it deeply divided the nation of more than 50 million people and was narrowly rejected in a popular vote before Congress finally approved a modified version.

Petro, and three other losing candidates, have backed the deal, meaning Duque may need to moderate his position to attract wavering voters.

Center-left mathematician Sergio Fajardo, who came third, with 24 percent of votes, declined to endorse either candidate for the second round, saying his supporters would make up their own minds.

Political pundits in Colombia said that if June’s vote went along ideological lines, the votes of the center-left could be enough for Petro to seriously challenge Duque, if he can dodge his rival’s accusations of radicalism.

“Petro was quite clearly behind Duque in the vote, so that will reassure the markets,” Camilo Perez, head of economic studies at Banco de Bogota. “But the fact that Fajardo was so close to Petro may generate nervousness, as his approach is probably closer to Petro’s and that could send votes his way.”

ARRAY OF CHALLENGES

The winner of the second round will face an intimidating array of challenges, from stubbornly low economic growth to threats to Colombia’s prized investment grade credit rating, besides difficulties in implementing the peace accord.

Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro speaks to supporters after polls closed in the first round of the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Some areas abandoned by the FARC have suffered an increase in fighting between criminal gangs and a remaining guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), over valuable illegal mining and drug trafficking territories.

Colombia’s production of coca, the raw material for cocaine, tripled between 2012 and 2016, stirring concern in Washington.

Polls suggest the end of the FARC conflict has shifted voters’ priorities to inequality and corruption from security issues – opening the door to the left for the first time.

However, a growing crisis in neighboring socialist-run Venezuela, which has driven hundreds of thousands of desperate people to flee across the border, is a thorn in the side for Petro, with Duque’s camp saying he would plunge Colombia into a similar crisis.

Petro has promised to take power away from political and social elites he accuses of having stymied development, and to carry out a complete economic overhaul.

At his election night party in the capital, communist party militants waved red flags above the crowd, yet Petro struck a moderate tone as both he and Duque sought to attract centrist voters.

“When we talk about defeating poverty, we’re not talking about impoverishing the rich, but about enriching the poor,” said the bespectacled Petro, surrounded by family members.

However, in a country where oil and coal are the top export earners, Petro’s pledges to end extractive industries and shift the focus of state-run oil company Ecopetrol to renewable energy have dismayed business leaders.

“Our country has never lived such a polarized moment as this and Petro represents a huge danger, but we are going to beat him,” Mariana Riaño, a 21-year-old student, said at Duque’s celebration party at a conference center in Bogota.

(For graphic on Latin American elections, click: tmsnrt.rs/2wSwu9k)

Reporting by Helen Murphy, Nelson Bocanegra and Steven Grattan; Additional reporting by Dylan Baddour; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

The post Colombia heads for divisive runoff with peace deal at stake appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2L2hZ4U via Online News

[ashleyreneexphotography]

The Griswolds by Ashley Houston Via Flickr: April 22 2016 | Columbus OH

[amusicblogyea]

Gimme Your Answers 2: A Video Interview w/ The Griswolds

It’s been over two years since A Music Blog, Yea? first spoke with Aussie pop-rock group The Griswolds. Touring in support of their debut record Be Impressive‘s release, we had the pleasure of meeting up with the foursome while stopping through Toronto to catch up on all things The Griswolds. Dive into our exclusive interview below as we also discuss music video stunts, their fans, favourite Bill…

[sparklypunk]

danny_duke: If I die, play Stayin Alive by The Bee Gee's as my coffins going down.

[amusicblogyea]

Photos: The Griswolds and Urban Cone @ The Garrison – Toronto

The Griswolds Urban Cone For all features and interviews with The Griswolds, click here. Photos by Alicia Atout | @AliciaAtout