Guatemala convicts ex-officer, paramilitary in slavery case

February 27, 2016

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — In a historic ruling, a Guatemalan court on Friday convicted a retired army officer and a former paramilitary for the sexual enslavement of women during the country's civil war. It sentenced them to 120 years and 240 years in prison respectively.

The ruling was the first time a local court handed down a judgment for such crimes in this Central American country, which is seeking to address abuses committed during its brutal 1960-1996 civil war.

The retired officer, 2nd Lt. Esteelmer Reyes Giron, was found guilty of crimes against humanity for holding 15 women in sexual and domestic slavery and for killing one woman and her two young daughters.

Heriberto Valdez Asij, a civilian with military functions, was convicted for the same enslavement, as well as the forced disappearance of seven men. The 120- and 240-year sentences the men received are partly symbolic since Guatemalan law caps the amount of time anyone can spend in prison at 50 years.

The packed courtroom erupted in cheers and chants of "justice, justice!" when the ruling was read. "These historic convictions send the unequivocal message that sexual violence is a serious crime and that no matter how much time passes, it will be punished. It is a great victory for the eleven women who embarked on a 30-year-long battle for justice," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

During the trial, the victims testified to the abuse they suffered during six months in 1982 and 1983 at the Sepur Zarco military base in northern Guatemala. After the army entered their communities, the men were disappeared and when the women went to the military base to ask for them, they were raped and forced to cook and wash clothes for the soldiers.

During 20 hearings, 11 women from the indigenous Q'eqchis communities described how they physically and emotionally deteriorated while being raped and used as slaves for half a year. In court, many wore indigenous garb and had their faces covered.

More than 35 boxes of evidence were presented, including some with human remains and pieces of clothing. The remains were exhumed in 2012 by the Guatemalan Foundation for Forensic Anthropology. "We the judges firmly believe the testimony of the women who were raped in Sepur Zarco," said Yassmin Barrios, chief judge of the court. "Rape is an instrument or weapon of war, it is a way to attack the country, killing or raping the victims, the woman was seen as a military objective."

Moises Galindo, the defense lawyer for Reyes Giron, said the trial was a fabrication and that his client was never at the site of the crimes. "We are going to appeal. We are going to succeed in having this case thrown out," Galindo said. "They should go to the location because the people of Sepur Zarco don't say that all this happened there."

But the judge said the accused couldn't deny knowing about what had happened since they exercised control and power over the area. Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, who was present at the reading of the judgment, said, "this is historic, it is a great step for women and above all for the victims."

Guatemala was wracked by a decades-long civil war as the military battled a Marxist guerrilla force. According to the United Nations, some 245,000 people were killed or disappeared during the war.

Soccer's world body elects Gianni Infantino as president

February 26, 2016

ZURICH (AP) — Gianni Infantino is the new president of soccer's corruption-scarred world governing body, winning election after promising national leaders of the sport that he would share the wealth from FIFA's $5 billion World Cup revenues.

Infantino was chosen on the second-ballot Friday to fill the unexpired term of longtime FIFA leader Sepp Blatter, who was forced out by the pressure of U.S. and Swiss investigations of bribery and corruption that emerged two days before the previous vote in May 2015.

The stunning outcome seemed to catch the 45-year-old Infantino off-guard. He had to compose himself before starting his acceptance speech and saluted voters by patting his heart with his right hand. "We will restore the image of FIFA and the respect of FIFA. And everyone in the world will applaud us," said Infantino, who only became a candidate when a case of financial wrongdoing removed his own boss, Michel Platini, at Europe's soccer body UEFA.

"I am convinced a new era is starting," said the Swiss-born former lawyer. Blatter headed FIFA for more than 17 years. Infantino pledged to meet quickly with World Cup broadcasters and sponsors, saying they "they need to regain trust and confidence in football and in FIFA."

There were only four candidates on the ballot after Tokyo Sexwale withdrew during his campaign speech to voters. The four were Infantino, UEFA's general secretary; Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, the Asian confederation president; Prince Ali of Jordan; and Jerome Champagne of France.

Infantino, who had waged a globe-trotting campaign in the four months leading up to the election, gave an impressive 15-minute speech only 20 minutes before the first-round vote. The Swiss-Italian spoke in several languages without notes and portrayed himself as a leader for the world, not just Europe's wealthy confederation.

His campaign promised to spread the World Cup largesse to more federations, including additional guaranteed funds. He also pledged to expand the World Cup from a 32-team tournament to 40 teams, and give more opportunities to countries to stage the World Cup with multinational regional hosting.

"The money of FIFA is your money," he said, jabbing his left index finger to the 207 members of soccer federations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe before the election. "It is not the money of the FIFA president. It's your money," added Infantino, sounding more like a CEO promising a dividend to shareholders.

A rare burst of spontaneous applause followed, signaling a shift in momentum toward Infantino, who since his 30s managed the billion-dollar Champions League revenues for UEFA. It resonated with members of the corruption ravaged soccer bodies of the Americas, known as CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. FIFA froze a combined $20 million of their funds in December in the aftermath of the U.S. Justice Department's sprawling investigation of bribe-taking by top FIFA officials.

"Gianni's speech was a president's speech," said Kohzo Tshima of Japan, a new member of FIFA's long-tainted executive committee, adding that his words changed the atmosphere in the election hall. In the first round, Infantino took a surprising lead with 88 votes — just three more than Sheikh Salman but key to making him look like a winner with valuable momentum. Prince Ali received 27 votes, and Champagne seven.

Then, in the second round, Infantino received 115 votes to earn a decisive majority over Sheikh Salman, who received 88 votes. Prince Ali got four votes, and Champagne none. "I talked to Gianni last night and we said we'd support Prince Ali," said U.S. delegation head Sunil Gulati, "but also he knew where we would be as it unfolded if it did, in the way it did."

No second-round has been needed in a FIFA presidential election since 1974. That year, Joao Havelange of Brazil needed two rounds to defeat 13-year incumbent Stanley Rous of England. Infantino, like the 78-year-old Blatter, is from the Valais region in the Swiss Alps. He will be president until May 2019, completing the remainder of Blatter's term.

Blatter, 79, won a fifth term last year but, amid the escalating corruption scandals, bowed to pressure four days after the election and said he would resign. He was subsequently banned for six years for financial mismanagement and was absent Friday after 40 years as a fixture at FIFA meetings.

"I congratulate Gianni Infantino sincerely and warmly on his election as the new president," Blatter said in a statement. "With his experience, expertise, strategic and diplomatic skills he has all the qualities to continue my work and to stabilize FIFA again."

Sheikh Salman was expected to lead the first round with backing from Africa and the Asian soccer confederation he has led since 2013. He also had behind him the Kuwait-based vote-gathering operation of Olympic power- broker Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, his FIFA executive committee colleague, who sustained a rare electoral loss.

Still, he had been the most criticized and scrutinized candidate throughout the campaign. The issue of Bahrain's human rights record was often cited by Gulf activists but had not seemed to seriously trouble voters outside Europe.

Sheikh Salman has strongly denied claims about his role in the Arab Spring protests of 2011 when he was Bahrain's soccer federation president. Infantino takes over a wealthy but vulnerable soccer body whose image and confidence has been shattered by the escalating scandals.

Before electing FIFA's first new president since 1998, 87 percent of the 207 voting federations passed wide-ranging reforms to guard against corruption and curb the powers of its leader. Those include preventing presidents from serving more than three four-year terms, reducing their powers and guaranteeing more independent oversight for FIFA's decision-making and spending. The executive committee will be renamed the FIFA Council, with more female members. Stricter integrity checks will also control top officials.

FIFA and its lawyers hope the reform will help show U.S. prosecutors the soccer body is serious about changing its culture, and protect its status as a victim in the American investigation. A total of 41 people and marketing agencies have been indicted or made guilty pleas, and Blatter is a target.

Associated Press writers Rob Harris and Frank Jordans contributed to this report.

Russian industry workers squeezed but scared of speaking out

February 29, 2016

TOGLIATTI, Russia (AP) — Once intended as a Soviet rival to the capitalist symbol of Detroit, Russia's auto-making hub of Togliatti is sliding into economic depression. And blue collar workers are taking the brunt of the pain as employers use the threat of joblessness to slash or withhold wages at will.

Far from its 1960s roots as a socialist vision of the future, central Togliatti is lined with discount retailers, payday lenders and pawnshops as the recession has cratered the car market. Workers from the vast Lada car factory say they're increasingly desperate but too scared to speak out due to what they claim is the threat of retaliation by managers.

"People are frightened to say even a single word," production worker and union activist Nataliya Yemshanova said at a union meeting in a member's apartment. "I can't remember that happening before. They can pay less money. People will agree to any wage."

Yemshanova provided The Associated Press with pay slips showing monthly earnings of just 10,300 rubles ($135) in January. She said her pay was slashed by half after she refused a demand to switch to cleaning floors, and claimed some managers at AvtoVAZ, the company which owns the Lada factory, were using the threat of unemployment to force workers — especially those critical of the management — to accept lower pay.

A payslip in the name of Yemshanova's brother, who works for the same company, shows earnings of 7,800 rubles ($100) for January. Sitting near Yemshanova at the meeting, union leader Anna Perova, who has worked for AvtoVAZ since the Soviet era, held up her right hand to show how she lost parts of four fingers in 2011 — crushed, she says, by a faulty metal press. She warns of a rise in industrial accidents as budgets for maintenance and training come under strain. "People are sent to different production areas where they don't understand what's going on. That happened recently. A woman pressed a button for an examination and her hand was utterly crushed," she said. Perova's account could not be independently confirmed by the AP.

AvtoVAZ and Renault-Nissan, a French-Japanese alliance that controls AvtoVAZ through a holding company, did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations of wage cuts and industrial accidents.

Many of Togliatti's major employers supply the factory, meaning the car market's malaise infects the city as a whole. AvtoVAZ lost almost $1 billion in 2015 and its liabilities exceed its assets, leading auditors Ernst & Young to warn of "a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on (Avtovaz's) ability to continue as a going concern."

The company is the highest-profile casualty of a plunging car market, where sales dropped by more than a third last year and some foreign firms, including General Motors, have pulled out entirely. Lada's factory is now implementing a cost-saving plan that includes a reduction in head count. Moving to a four-day week this month has essentially meant a 20 percent pay cut across the board, on top of the arbitrary wage cuts workers claim to have suffered.

President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have shown support for the industry with a string of factory visits and promised some state support, though the numbers are unclear. Under Renault and Nissan's ownership of AvtoVAZ, there has been a drive to modernize the Lada range with new models based on Renault designs, but this has meant importing parts and exposing the Soviet-era network of parts suppliers in the city to extra competition. AvtoVAZagregat, a company which made interiors for AvtoVAZ cars but is under separate ownership, ceased production last year and is now in bankruptcy proceedings, leaving more than 2,000 people out of work. CEO Viktor Kozlov has been arrested on suspicion of tax fraud.

Elena Seliverstova, who worked for AvtoVAZagregat in purchasing for 25 years, showed the AP documents detailing an ever-increasing portion of unpaid monthly wages since July, culminating in January, when she received none of her monthly earnings of almost 23,000 rubles ($300), money she needs to support her elderly mother.

"You know, it's a complete catastrophe," she said through tears. Only financial help from her son has prevented her electricity from being cut off in the middle of winter, Seliverstova said. Mechanic Andrei Dobrokhotov said he had not received any money from AvtoVAZagregat since June, forcing his family to depend on cheap foods like barley. Both he and Seliverstova said they had looked for new work but found none, and that AvtoVAZagregat had retained documents of theirs that are required by law when registering at a new workplace.

More than 1,000 people protested the AvtoVAZagregat collapse on a Togliatti square in November, demanding unpaid wages, in a demonstration organized by local communists. Seliverstova, who was there, doubts political action by workers can force the payment of wage arrears or get support from the city government, which is itself under pressure due to lower tax receipts from the car industry.

Russian legislation stacks the deck against workers, she says. While the Russian constitution guarantees the right to strike, in practice the process of organizing a strike is intensely bureaucratic, involving numerous documents that can easily be ruled invalid by officials or courts. Many companies also agree to recognize only so-called official unions with links to management or local authorities.

Four hours' drive from Togliatti in the city of Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, the UAZ factory is surviving by offering cheap vehicles that have not changed much since Soviet times.

The factory, which had its origins producing cheap wooden-bodied trucks in World War II, produces basic, off-road vehicles popular both with the Russian army and consumers driving on potholed roads in the provinces. Some older models even lack airbags. Last year, its sales in the Russian market dropped two percent, a much better performance than the market as a whole.

UAZ has dropped plans to ditch its Hunter model, a design dating back more than 40 years. The flagship Patriot SUV has its origins in designs from the 1990s, while a 1960s-designed van is also still in production.

"It breaks down sometimes but it's easy to repair, it doesn't need roads and it'll travel through Russian dirt," company representative Konstantin Sazonov said as he watched the vans roll off the production line, which relies heavily on manual labor.

Even in Ulyanovsk, however, workers are under strain. The region has some of the lowest wages outside Russia's impoverished North Caucasus, with pay barely one-third of that in Moscow. Food prices have been rising rapidly since Russia banned imports of European Union food in 2014, and inflation ran at 12.9 percent last year.

While there is no sign of organized public unrest in rustbelt towns like Ulyanovsk and Togliatti, as the ruling United Russia party dominates the political scene, that could change, with some senior government officials voicing concern.

In an interview with the Kommersant business daily last month, Ulyanovsk regional governor Sergei Morozov said he had seen government research reporting that "up to half" of the population would be prepared to protest against tough economic circumstances. "Those are very disturbing numbers for all parts of the government."

Muscovites mark year since opposition leader's murder

February 27, 2016

MOSCOW (AP) — More than 20,000 people marched across downtown Moscow Saturday in memory of the slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov to mark the first anniversary of his killing. Nemtsov was shot to death late at night as he and a companion walked across a bridge overlooking the Kremlin. The brutality so close to the center of Russian power both frightened and angered supporters of the beleaguered opposition.

Nemtsov, who had been a deputy prime minister during Boris Yeltsin's presidency, was a charismatic figure and a vehement critic of President Vladimir Putin. "He was the embodiment of freedom and courage, he was a model for me," said marcher Kamala Igamberdiyeva, a 26-year-old accountant. "We still have a chance if the opposition shows wisdom and unites."

In Putin's decade-and-a-half in power, opposition groups have come under severe pressure, criticized by officials and state-controlled media as pawns of the West. Permission for rallies is frequently denied.

Many opposition supporters say that even if Putin had no direct hand in Nemtsov's killing, he bears responsibility for encouraging a truculent authoritarianism. "Nemtsov's death was the result of the atmosphere of hatred in our country," said 78-year-old demonstrator Pavel Movshovich.

City authorities denied march organizers permission to hold a procession to the bridge, but gave permission for another route in central Moscow on Saturday. Some demonstrators also visited the bridge.

On Saturday morning, U.S. Ambassador John Tefft laid a wreath at the bridge, saying he came to express hope that "some of the dreams that Boris Nemtsov had will come true in Russia." Five suspects have been arrested in the killing, all of them Chechens. The suspected triggerman served as an officer in the security forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The official probe has failed to identify those who ordered the killing, and Russian liberal opposition activists have criticized the Kremlin for the failure to track down the mastermind. Earlier this week, opposition leader Ilya Yashin released a report accusing Kadyrov of involvement in Nemtsov's killing and demanding his resignation.

Kadyrov, whose term expires in early April, rejected the accusations. At the same time, he tried to secure his position by taking a posture of obedience. "The nation's leadership needs to find another person so that my name isn't used against my people," he said Saturday in televised remarks. "My time has passed."

Putin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two separatist wars, making him effectively immune from federal controls. Kadyrov's unparalleled privileges and defiant ways have earned him numerous enemies in Russia's law enforcement agencies, whose leaders have pushed for his dismissal.

Katherine Jacobsen, James Heintz and Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.

In blow to Iran hard-liners, moderates win clerical assembly

February 29, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's moderates have dealt another blow to the country's hard-liners, winning the majority of seats in last week's vote for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body empowered with choosing the nation's supreme leader.

Top moderates — President Hassan Rouhani and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — both won seats in the assembly, along with 50 other of their allies. The vote for the 88-member Assembly of Experts was held at the same time as the country's parliament elections. The final results of that vote were expected for later Monday.

According to Iran's Interior Ministry, which gave the final results for the clerical assembly, moderates won 59 percent of the seats in the body. And though it's seen as a historic win for the moderates, several prominent hard-liners, including Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati have also been re-elected.

Jannati, who finished last in Tehran, is also the hard-line leader of the country's Guardian Council, an unelected, constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates. He has been the most potent force to oppose democratic reforms and disqualify reformist candidates from the parliamentary balloting and also the clerical assembly vote. Jannati and his allies in the Guardian Council disqualified Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, from running in Friday's vote.

The most surprising was the loss of seats on the clerical assembly for some prominent hard-liners, including Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the current Experts Assembly chief who was not re-elected. Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, the spiritual leader of hard-liners and mentor of former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also lost his seat in the assembly.

The Assembly of Experts serves a function similar to that of the Vatican's College of Cardinals, and will someday have to pick a successor to Iran's current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It also can directly challenge Khamenei's rule, something it has never done before.

The assembly is elected every eight years. After Khamenei, who is 76 years old, underwent prostate surgery in 2014, speculation renewed about the state of his health. Friday's twin elections for parliament and the clerical assembly were the first to be held in Iran since it struck a landmark nuclear deal with world powers last year that brought about the lifting of crippling international sanctions.

The moderates previously held around 20 seats in the assembly and their win is seen as an expansion of their influence within the powerful body. As for the parliament elections, none of Iran's three main political camps — reformists, conservatives and hard-liners — is expected to win an outright majority in the 290-seat house but partial results so far indicate the best reformist showing in more than a decade.

Iranian reformists set to win all Tehran parliamentary seats

February 28, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Partial results released Sunday indicate that Iranian reformists will win all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran, handing hard-liners an embarrassing defeat in the first elections held since last year's nuclear deal.

The deal is expected to bolster moderate allies of President Hassan Rouhani, who championed it in the face of hard-line opposition. However, none of Iran's three main political camps -- reformists, conservatives or hard-liners -- is expected to win a majority in the 290-seat assembly.

State TV said Sunday that reformists -- who favor expanding social freedoms and improving relations with the West -- are set to win all of Tehran's seats. It said 62 percent of the capital's votes have been counted.

Tehran is seen as a political bellwether where prominent members of all three camps face off against each other. Across the country, the reformist camp is on track for its best showing in more than a decade.

The final results from the elections are expected on Monday. Friday's election was the first since last summer's nuclear deal, which brought about the lifting of crippling international sanctions on Iran in exchange for it curbing its nuclear activities.

Reformists and moderate conservatives — who supported the agreement -- appear poised to win a majority, which could pave the way for increased economic openness and greater cooperation with the West on regional issues like the war against the Islamic State group.

Reformists currently hold fewer than 20 seats and have been virtually shut out of politics since losing their parliamentary majority in the 2004 elections. Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005. Over the next eight years, he aggressively expanded the nuclear program, which Tehran insists is entirely peaceful, and alarmed Western countries by casting doubt on the scale of the Holocaust and predicting Israel would one day be wiped off the map.

Nearly 55 million of Iran's 80 million people were eligible to vote. Participation figures were not immediately available, but Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on Saturday said turnout likely exceeded 60 percent based on the partial counting of the votes.

Iran reformists performing well in early election results

February 27, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Preliminary results early Saturday morning showed reformist candidates heading for their best showing in more than a decade in Iranian parliamentary elections, according to local media and election officials counting the ballots.

Officials have yet to release early results, but reports in the semiofficial Fars and Mehr news agencies showed hard-liners losing ground in the 290-seat legislative body. None of Iran's three main political camps -- reformist, conservative and hard-line -- was expected to capture a majority, but the reformist camp, which seeks greater democratic rights and better ties with the West, is expected to secure its strongest parliamentary presence since 2004.

A strong reformist showing would be a boost for moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who championed the newly implemented Iranian nuclear deal with world powers in the face of harsh hard-line opposition.

Nearly 55 million of Iran's 80 million people were eligible to vote. Participation figures were not immediately available, though Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli predicted late Thursday there would be a turnout of 70 percent.

Friday's election for Iran's parliament and a powerful clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts was the first since last summer's nuclear agreement was finalized, lifting international economic sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program.

Polls were closed at midnight and officials immediately began counting the ballots afterward. In the capital Tehran, officials counting the ballots at three different districts confirmed to The Associated Press that reformists were leading their hard-line rivals.

A substantial reformist bloc could herald a crucial shift in Iran's internal politics. The hard-line camp is largely made up of loyalists of Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who during his two terms in office avidly stoked tensions with the U.S. and cracked down on internal dissidents. Ahmadinejad also alienated large sectors of the conservative camp, leading some moderate conservatives to ally with reformists in this election in a bid to reduce the power of the hard-liners.

Reformists stormed to power with the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, followed by 2000 parliamentary elections that brought a reformist majority to parliament for the first time. The movement pressed for an easing of Islamic social restrictions, wider freedom of expression and better ties to the international community.

But that hold was broken in the next election in 2004, when reformist candidates were largely barred from running. Ahmadinejad's election victory in 2005 sealed the movement's downfall. Since then reformists have been virtually shut out of politics for nearly a decade until Rouhani was elected.