Mexican security consultant who worked for US State Department killed in cartel ambush
The brazen killing took place Friday night after 9:00 p.m. as the man, César Guzman, was dining with two fellow instructors with whom he had just completed a security and intelligence training course for police from Jalisco state, according to Arturo Fontes, a retired FBI agent who worked with Guzman.
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Toronto Sun
32 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
Haitian police arrest a former senator accused of working with gangs to attack a peaceful community
Published Aug 03, 2025 • 1 minute read FILE - Senator Nenel Cassy speaks to journalists after a news conference in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 3, 2019. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell / AP BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Police in Haiti have arrested a former senator who has been charged with conspiring against the state and financing criminal organizations. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Nenel Cassy was arrested on Saturday while he was at a restaurant in Petionville, a wealthy district of the capital, Port-au Prince, Haiti's National Police said in a post published on Facebook. The police shared photos of the former senator in handcuffs, next to heavily armed officers wearing ski masks. Cassy, who was designated as a corrupt actor by the U.S. State Department in 2023, was accused by Haiti's police in February of backing gang members who launched attacks on Kenscoff, a wealthy neighborhood 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside Port-su-Prince, that had been largely untouched by Haiti's gang violence. Dozens of people were killed in the February attacks including farmers who worked in the nearby hills and a 2-month-old baby. Gangs control 90% of Haiti's capital, according to the United Nations, and in recent months they have been launching attacks on previously peaceful communities in order to seize more territory. More than 5,6000 people were reported killed in Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless in recent years, according to the U.N. Toronto Blue Jays Homes Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Columnists
Vancouver Sun
an hour ago
- Vancouver Sun
A convicted priest is back at work. Child advocates want Pope Leo to act
VATICAN CITY – He was the personification of shame in the Vatican, the lone prisoner in the three-cell jail of the world's smallest sovereign state. Now, the Rev. Carlo Alberto Capella – convicted of possessing and distributing a 'large quantity' of child pornography while serving as a Vatican diplomat in Washington – is presenting Pope Leo XIV, the new American pontiff, with one of the first challenges of his papacy. Capella, a 58-year-old Italian priest, was investigated by U.S. and Canadian authorities for almost two years for gathering and sharing child pornography while a senior diplomat at the Holy See's embassy in Washington. In 2017, the U.S. State Department asked the Vatican to waive his diplomatic immunity, a request it denied. Instead, Capella was recalled to Rome, where he admitted to tracking down 'repugnant' images and, in a rare Vatican criminal trial a year later, was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. In recent weeks, reports have emerged on Catholic blogs of his 2022 release and quiet return to work at the Holy See's Secretariat of State. His restoration to the powerful department has outraged advocates for the survivors of abuse by Catholic clerics. They insist that even though he was never accused of sexual abuse, a convicted priest who consumed child pornography has no place in a prominent Vatican office. 'Why not give him a job scrubbing floors, or bathrooms, at the Vatican,' said Peter Isely, a member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. 'Why is he still an official member of the state department? It's wrong on every level.' As Pope Leo is confronted with demands to act, he becomes the fourth pontiff since the 1990s to face scrutiny, and potentially judgement, over how he handles the still-emerging cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics. Pope John Paul II faced both contemporary and posthumous criticism for his handling of abuse cases. The issue dogged Benedict XVI even more, with a chorus of complaints seen as one of several factors contributing to his historic decision to retire. Pope Francis enacted reforms aimed at addressing the scandals, yet survivor groups routinely took him to task for failing to adopt a policy of zero tolerance including mandatory reporting to civil authorities. Now advocate groups are looking to Leo to chart a different course, and even reverse Francis on the Capella case. Capella's attorney, Roberto Borgogno, said in an interview that his client was released a year early, in the first part of 2022, for 'good behavior' and resumed work at the secretariat in January 2023. Pope Francis, Borgogno said, approved Capella's return and had at least one direct post-release conversation with him about his contrition. 'These are certainly decisions made logically, rationally, by the pontiff at the time,' Borgogno said. The direct involvement of Francis and the specifics of Capella's living arrangement and monitoring have not been previously reported. Capella, whose work is limited to checking translations and doing archival work, now lives just outside the Vatican, in a center for retired diplomats, his lawyer said. His work computer is monitored by Vatican officials, though he has an unmonitored personal cellphone. Borgogno noted that while Capella had not been defrocked, Vatican authorities stripped him of his elevated title of monsignor. Though he returned to the secretariat in 2023, Capella was considered to be 'on probation' and only recently appeared on the Holy See's official personnel registry. 'It's merely a desk job,' Borgogno said. 'He won't be carrying out pastoral work; he won't be in contact with people on the outside.' Through Borgogno, Capella declined an interview request. The renewed focus on Capella comes as Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse, France, faces criticism for appointing a priest, convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy in 1993, to the senior post of archdiocesan chancellor, citing the moral imperative of forgiveness. Victims groups are now calling on Leo to intervene in both instances. 'This is a test,' said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of a watchdog group that tracks abuse cases in the Catholic Church. 'To me, it brings up bigger questions of the Vatican's continued rejection of zero tolerance for sex offenders. I think these two things together really put all eyes on Pope Leo. We're all wondering if he will be tougher on sex abusers than Pope Francis was.' The Secretariat of State did not respond to a detailed request for comment. A senior Vatican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter said he didn't know whether Leo had been briefed on the cases or intended to take specific action. It's hardly unheard of for a pope to reverse a predecessor's decision – Francis, for instance, curbed use of the traditional Latin Mass after Pope Benedict XVI had relaxed restrictions on it. 'The pope clearly has jurisdiction in the matter … it will all be up to him,' said Giovanni Maria Vian, former editor of the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, and a historian of early Christianity. 'He's likely aware of the [Capella] case. It wouldn't be unusual if he took action.' The official described Capella's job as one in which he has minimal contact with the public and can 'earn his keep.' His return to work is a chance for Capella to 'redeem' himself, the official said, arguing that no punishment for such priests will ever 'be enough' for some victims advocates. If everyone who does wrong 'gets shunned,' the official said, 'few of us would still be standing.' The Washington Post reported in 2021 that Capella had been allowed to participate in a work-release program in which he spent mornings at the small Vatican office that sells certificates of papal blessings for personal occasions. Now, Capella's case is once again underscoring how the Holy See routinely approaches wrongdoing by clerics – from the religious standpoint of mercy and a spirit of Catholic atonement. That vision has clashed with that of victims advocates, who see Capella's return to the secretariat in any capacity, as well as the senior appointment of a convicted rapist in France, as evidence of an overly lenient approach. The demands for action have raised questions about how the new pope will handle perhaps the thorniest issue facing the faith he leads: tainted priests. Under Francis, the Vatican sought to address widespread allegations of church complicity. In 2019, he convened an unprecedented summit on clerical sexual abuse, later imposing a sweeping law requiring church officials to report accusations of abuse or official cover-ups to their superiors. But the law did not require allegations to be reported to civil authorities, and victims groups have pointed to more-recent scandals in Switzerland and elsewhere as evidence that not enough has changed. They say Leo should remove Capella from the secretariat and overturn the recent French appointment to show his commitment to zero tolerance. Leo has a mixed record on handling abuse cases. As a bishop in Peru, for instance, he won praise for moving against the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae – a secretive, archconservative Catholic group that expanded from Lima to several countries and was accused of systematic sexual and psychological abuse. At the same time, he was accused of lax oversight in the handling of abuse allegations by three women in his diocese of Chiclayo. Last month, in a note honoring a Peruvian journalist whose work helped expose sexual abuse within the Sodalitium group, Leo called for a cultural shift inside the church. It is necessary to instill 'throughout the Church a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse: abuse of power or authority, of conscience or spirituality, of sexual abuse,' he wrote. 08-02-2025 01:57PM Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our newsletters here .
Winnipeg Free Press
6 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Britain hopes a crackdown on people-smugglers' social media ads will help curb Channel crossings
LONDON (AP) — Britain says people who advertise fake passports or people-smuggling services on social medial could face up to five years in prison, in the government's latest effort to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats. The government said Sunday that anyone convicted of creating online materials intended to break U.K. immigration law will face prison time and a large fine. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the aim was to stop the 'brazen tactics on social media' used by smuggling gangs. 'Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the U.K. and a life in this country — whether on or offline — simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral,' she said. Assisting illegal immigration to the U.K. is already a crime, but officials believe a new offense — part of a border security bill currently going through Parliament — will give police and prosecutors more powers to disrupt gangs that send migrants on perilous journeys across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks. Since taking office a year ago, Starmer's center-left Labour Party government has adopted powers to seize the assets of people-smugglers, beefed up U.K. border surveillance and increased law-enforcement cooperation with France and other countries to disrupt the journeys. Despite that, more than 25,000 people have reached Britain by boat so far this year, an increase of 50% on the same period in 2024. Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue, fueled by pictures of smugglers piling migrants into overcrowded, leaky inflatable boats on the French coast. Opposition parties say the government's plans aren't working — though the government argues the problems built up during 14 years when the Conservative Party was in power, The Conservatives say Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government's contentious and expensive plan to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda. 'This is a panicked attempt to look tough after months of doing nothing,' Conservative immigration spokesman Chris Philp said. The government says it will take time to clear a backlog of applications that has left thousands of migrants stuck in temporary accommodation — often hotels — without the right to work. The hotels have become flashpoints for tension, attracting protests fueled by a mix of local concern, misinformation and anti-immigrant agitation.
