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Once Colombia’s Most-Wanted Drug Lord, The Kingpin Known As Otoniel Faces Sentencing In US
NEW YORK – For years, the man known as Otoniel was regarded as one of the world’s most deadly drug lords, the enigmatic leader of a cartel and paramilitary force that controlled much of northern Colombia.
Dairo Antonio Suga will be sentenced to at least 20 years in a U.S. prison on Tuesday. In January, he pled guilty to high-level drug trafficking charges, confessing he oversaw the shipment of tonnes of cocaine intended for the United States and admitting “there was a lot of violence with the guerillas and the criminal gangs.”
To get him extradited from Colombia, the U.S. agreed not to pursue a life sentence. Instead, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are seeking a 45-year prison sentence for Suga, who is 51 years old and has a lot of medical issues.
In a recent court filing, his “desire for control and revenge simply cannot be overstated, nor can the degree of harm he inflicted,” prosecutors wrote. They called his decade-long rule as commander of Colombia’s renowned Gulf Clan group a “reign of terror.”
Suga’s lawyers have attempted to portray him as a product of his country’s ills — a guy born into distant rural poverty, surrounded by guerilla warfare, recruited at age 16, and forged by decades of witnessing colleagues, fellow soldiers, and loved ones slain. He sided with left- and right-wing combatants in the country’s long-running internal struggle.
For years, the man known as Otoniel was regarded as one of the world’s most deadly drug lords, the enigmatic leader of a cartel and paramilitary force that controlled much of northern Colombia.
Understanding his actions “requires a closer examination of the history of violence and trauma that shaped Colombia as a nation and Mr. suga-David as a human being,” social worker Melissa Lang wrote in a July report filed in court by his defense.
Before his arrest in 2021, Suga was Colombia’s most wanted kingpin, and he had been wanted in the United States since 2009.
The Gulf Clan, also known as Colombia’s Gaitanist Self Defence Forces, rules over a region rich in drug, weapon, and migrant smuggling routes. The group has fought rival gangs, paramilitary groups, and Colombian authorities with military-grade weapons and thousands of members. It paid for its reign by levying “taxes” on cocaine manufactured, stored, or transported through its jurisdiction. (He agreed to lose $216 million as part of his plea deal.)
“Homicides were committed in military work,” Suga admitted before the court through an interpreter.
According to prosecutors, Suga ordered the killings of perceived adversaries, one of whom was tortured, buried alive, and beheaded, and terrorized the general populace. They claim the kingpin ordered a days-long, stay-at-home-or-die “strike” after his brother was slain in a police raid, and he offered bounties for police and soldier lives.
For years, the man known as Otoniel was regarded as one of the world’s most deadly drug lords, the enigmatic leader of a cartel and paramilitary force that controlled much of northern Colombia.
“The damage that this man named Otoniel has caused to our family is unfathomable,” stated relatives of killed police officer Milton Eliecer Flores Arcila in a letter to the court. Officer John Gelber Rojas Colmenares’s widow, who was slain in 2017, stated that suga “took away the chance I had of growing old with the love of my life.”
“All I am asking for is justice for my daughter, myself, John’s family, friends, and in honour of my husband, that his death not go unpunished,” she wrote. The identities of all the relatives were redacted in court records.
Despite manhunts and reward offers totaling $5 million from the United States and Colombia, Suga Otoniel has long evaded capture by rotating between a network of rural safe homes.
According to prosecutors, Gulf Clan members attempted to poison a potential witness against him with cyanide after his detention and attempted to assassinate the witness’ lawyer.
SOURCE – (AP)
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Canadian Man Arrested for TikTok Video That Threatened Trudeau
A TikTok video that went live earlier this week has led to a Toronto man facing charges of threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Andrew Marshall, 61, is facing two counts of uttering threats.
On Friday afternoon, the Ontario Court of Justice granted him bail with a surety and restrictions after the RCMP charged him on Wednesday.
Following Monday’s upload to TikTok, CBC Toronto conducted its own independent investigation of the video. Marshall vehemently opposes what he perceives as restrictions on free expression in Canada in it.
“I get them taken down all the time— I make videos — or all my comments, that are just simple comments,” Marsh says in the TikTok. “It’s just getting ridiculous, Marshall said.”
According to the CBC more and more people are threatening politicians. The commissioner of the RCMP has hinted that further measures may be necessary to ensure their safety.
In the TikTok video, Marshall explains in great detail how he would brutally assassinate Trudeau and Freeland “if it was up to him.”
Marshall attacks multiple groups throughout the roughly 11-minute TikTok video, including the media, Muslims, migrants, and the police who defend the government.
Among Marshall’s bail terms are the following: he must not communicate with Trudeau or Freeland; he must not use the internet to make social media posts or comments; he must not own any weapons; and he must not apply for a firearms permit.
During the bail hearing, the prosecution provided all of the evidence that is often not published.
Nate Jackson, Marshall’s attorney, stressed his client’s liberties and privileges as a Canadian in an email message.
“He has the right to freedom of speech, the right to reasonable bail and the right to a fair trial,” he said. “Having secured his release from custody, we will continue to defend Mr. Marshall’s Charter rights as his case proceeds.”
Neither Freeland’s nor the prime minister’s office would comment on the allegations, according to the CBC.
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Canada’s Unemployment Rate Hits its Highest Point Since 2017
As the job market remains dismal, the national unemployment rate in Canada has risen to its highest point since 2017. This has led some analysts to question whether the Bank of Canada should be reducing interest rates more quickly.
In spite of a net gain of 22,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the unemployment rate increased to 6.6% from 6.4% the previous month. The rise was due to an uptick in part-time employment and a fall in full-time employment.
Outside of the pandemic years, the national unemployment rate has reached its highest position since May 2017, according to StatCan.
Rapid population expansion in Canada has increased the overall labour pool, but the country’s unemployment rate has persisted in rising.
The summer job market was especially tough for students, according to StatCan. Not including the pandemic, the unemployment rate among students going back to school in the autumn was 16.7 percent, which is the highest level since 2012.
Two days after the Bank of Canada dropped interest rates for the third time in a row, reducing borrowing costs to alleviate economic pressure, the most recent reading of the Canadian job market follows suit.
According to TD Bank economist Leslie Preston, who wrote a note on Friday, the central bank is “giving the OK” to keep dropping rates due to the bad August jobs report. Preston predicts two more quarter-point decreases at the remaining decisions this year.
According to CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham, there are indications that the labour market is quickly contracting more than initially thought, since the unemployment rate is nearly two percentage points greater than the record low of 4.9% in June 2022.
“Due to this, we believe the Bank should be contemplating a quicker rate of reductions in order to bring interest rates to less restrictive levels,” he informed clients in a letter on Friday morning.
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US Job Growth Falls Short of Expectations: Economy Struggles Under High Interest Rates
Last month, job growth in the United States was weaker than predicted, prompting concerns that the world’s largest economy is beginning to struggle under the weight of increased interest rates.
The Labour Department said that employers added 142,000 jobs in August, which was less than the nearly 160,000 economists predicted. It also stated that job gains over the preceding two months were weaker than expected.
However, the jobless rate went down to 4.2%, down from 4.3% in July.
The report is one of the most important indicators of the US economy and arrives at a vital time, as voters consider presidential candidates for the November election and the US central bank contemplates its first interest rate decrease in four years.
Analysts said the latest statistics kept the Federal Reserve on pace for a rate drop at its meeting this month, but did little to answer worries about the trajectory of the US economy or how much of a cut it should make.
“There has rarely been such a make-or-break number; unfortunately, today’s jobs report does not completely resolve the recession debate,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
Soaring prices in 2022 caused the Federal Reserve to hike its key lending rate to 5.3%, a nearly 20-year high.
Faced with increased borrowing costs for homes, vehicles, and other debt, the economy has slowed, helping to alleviate pressures that were boosting inflation but exacerbating market concerns.
As inflation has fallen to 2.9% in July, the Fed is under pressure to decrease interest rates to prevent additional economic deceleration.
Although job increases in August fell short of expectations, they were greater than in July, when a slowdown aroused anxieties and triggered several days of stock market volatility.
Last month, construction and health-care firms hired the most, while manufacturing and retailers laid off employees.
Ms Shah stated that the data in Friday’s report was mixed, but provided enough concerning indicators that the Fed should make a larger cut.
“On balance, with inflation pressures subdued, there is no reason for the Fed not to err on the side of caution and frontload rate cuts,” she told reporters.
Others, however, felt the advances were just steady enough to warrant a 0.25 percentage point decrease, as markets had long projected – though this could signal more cuts than expected in the coming months.
Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics’ senior North America economist, predicted that the Fed’s decision will be “close run.”
“The labour market is clearly experiencing a marked slowdown,” he said, adding that the new statistics were “overall still consistent with an economy experiencing a soft landing rather than plummeting into recession”.
Concerns about the economy are a major issue in the US election.
According to polls, a majority of Americans feel the US is in a recession, despite healthy 2.5% growth last year.
Donald Trump has declared that the economy is headed for a “crash,” and his team instantly latched on the latest data to criticise Vice President Kamala Harris, publishing a press release titled “warning lights flash as Kamala’s economy continues to weaken.”
Democrats have defended their performance, claiming that the United States survived the pandemic and inflation better than many other countries.
They believe the slowdown is a sign that the economy is returning to a more sustainable rate of growth following the post-pandemic boom.
“Although hiring has slowed, the US job market continues to generate solid job gains and wage growth that is consistently beating inflation,” the White House Council of Economic Advisors stated in a blog.
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