Los Angeles Times - 29.08.2019

A4 THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019 LATIMES.COM

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Michael Avenatti:In the

Aug. 27 California section,

an article about a trial date

being set for lawyer Michael

Avenatti described a judge’s

ruling in regards to a “bank-

ruptcy receiver”; it is a re-

ceiver. Also, the article

stated that if convicted of all

charges, Avenatti could face

up to 97 years in prison. In

fact, he could face a maxi-

mum penalty of 404 years in

prison.

FOR THE RECORD

ROME — Italian Prime

Minister Giuseppe Conte

looks set to keep his job after

the Five Star Movement and

the Democratic Party

backed his reappointment

as part of a tentative coali-

tion deal reached Wednes-

day.

Conte was summoned for

a meeting with Italian Presi-

dent Sergio Mattarella on

Thursday that is widely ex-

pected to result in the prime

minister being officially or-

dered to form a new govern-

ment.

The center-left Demo-

cratic Party and the populist

Five Star Movement, known

as M5S, have been locked in

negotiations to form a gov-

ernment and avoid early

elections, which far-right

leader Matteo Salvini’s

League party would be the

favorite to win.

“Today we told the presi-

dent of the republic that

there is a political agree-

ment with the Democratic

Party that Giuseppe Conte

may be again given a man-

date as prime minister,”

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio

said.

He spoke after talks with

Mattarella, closing a two-

day round of consultations

the president held with po-

litical leaders. They were

seen as a deadline for the

M5S and Democratic Party

to strike an agreement.

Conte, a 55-year-old law

professor, had no political

experience before leading

the outgoing coalition gov-

ernment of Di Maio’s M5S

and Salvini’s League. He has

no official party affiliation

but is seen as close to M5S.

As prime minister-desig-

nate, Conte would have a few

days to consolidate the M5S-

Democratic Party pact, put

together a list of ministers,

report back to Mattarella

and be sworn in. He is serv-

ing as caretaker prime min-

ister after announcing his

resignation this month.

Despite agreeing on the

premier, the M5S and

Democratic Party have not

sealed their coalition. Di

Maio said the priorities and

the composition of the new

executive were still up for

discussion.

“Only after clearly setting

all the things we should do

together will we be able to

decide who will be called on

to implement the agreed

policies,” he said.

The new government

would be expected to be

more friendly toward the Eu-

ropean Union and take a

more moderate line on im-

migration than the outgoing

one.

Salvini triggered the gov-

ernment crisis this month by

ending a rocky 14-month co-

alition with the M5S and

calling for new elections. Re-

cent opinion polls indicate

the move has dented some of

his popularity.

Speaking to his party be-

fore meeting Mattarella,

Democratic Party leader

Nicola Zingaretti said it was

time to end a “season of ha-

tred, resentment, cunning,

selfishness.”

Yet Di Maio said he did

not regret his alliance with

Salvini. “I do not recant the

work done together in these

14 months,” he said.

Such divergent remarks

underlined the difficulty of

bringing together the M5S

and Democratic Party, two

former bitter allies who are

wrangling over top govern-

ment positions. The Demo-

cratic Party has called for

the new government to be

marked by “discontinuity”

from the previous one.

On Wednesday, the

Democratic Party balked at

demands that Di Maio

should remain deputy pre-

mier and that the final green

light to the alliance should

depend on an online vote by

M5S members.

Democratic Party depu-

ty leader Andrea Orlando

said it would be unaccept-

able if the M5S’s online vot-

ing system, known as

Rousseau, were to interfere

with the constitution and

presidential decisions.

The possibility remains

that a negative Rousseau

vote could stop the forma-

tion of a government.

Italian Premier

Conte expected

to keep his job

associated press

PRIME MINISTER

Giuseppe Conte would

lead a new coalition

without a far-right party.

Gregorio BorgiaAssociated Press

sity war, with a high number
of individual killings yet
fewer mass murders de-
signed to garner grisly head-
lines.
But that seems to be
changing. In April, 13 people
were killed when armed men
opened fire at a bar during a
family celebration in Minati-
tlan, Veracruz. On Aug. 8,
residents in Uruapan, Mi-
choacan, woke up to news
that 19 bodies had been left
overnight on a major boule-
vard, some of them hung
from a highway overpass.
There are many reasons
that criminal groups might
decide to carry out more
dramatic acts of violence,
analysts say. For example,
one criminal group might do
so to focus unwanted police
attention on a region con-
trolled by another group.
Alejandro Hope, a securi-
ty analyst based in Mexico
City, said such acts are de-
ployed “to buttress the repu-
tation of a particular group.”
“It intimidates rivals,” he
said. “It creates fear.”
Speaking at his daily
news conference Wednes-
day, President Andres Ma-
nuel Lopez Obrador called
the bar attack “the most in-
human thing possible.”
The president said offi-
cials believe one of the or-
ganizers of the attack was a
local cartel member identi-
fied as Ricardo “N,” who uses
the alias La Loca.
The man had recently
been arrested but was later
released, Lopez Obrador
said. He called for local pros-
ecutors to be investigated to
see why the alleged perpe-
trator had been freed.
“It is regrettable that or-
ganized crime acts in this
manner,” the president said.
“It is more regrettable that

there may be collusion with

authorities.”

The state attorney gener-

al’s office responded with a

statement denying any col-

lusion and saying that it was

federal authorities who were

responsible for the release of

La Loca.

Such finger-pointing is

particularly common in

Veracruz, where mistrust

among factions of govern-

ment is high.

The oil-rich state was

governed by a single political

faction, the Institutional

Revolutionary Party, or PRI,

for more than a century until

2016, when then-Gov. Javier

Duarte fled the country

amid corruption allegations.

Duarte was eventually ar-

rested and convicted of

charges including criminal

association and money laun-

dering.

The center-right Na-

tional Action Party, or PAN,

won an election to replace

Duarte in 2016, and the presi-

dent’s left-leaning Morena

party won the governorship

two years later.

Such rapid political turn-

over has disrupted agree-

ments between cartels and

public officials, said Falko

Ernst, senior analyst for

Mexico at the International

Crisis Group. It also appears

to have created divisions be-

tween those in government

now aligned with Morena

and prosecutors still aligned

with the PAN.

“There’s no trust be-

tween these different frag-

ments of the government,”

Ernst said. “They don’t even

speak to each other.”

“What we’re seeing is the

failure of two political transi-

tions to address the root

causes of violence,” he add-

ed.

Experts say a separate

political change has also

hampered Mexico’s ability

to fight crime.

The country’s justice sys-

tem is in the midst of a major

overhaul, transitioning from

a system based on written

arguments to one in which

evidence is presented orally.

Most experts agree the

transition is needed, but be-

cause police and prose-

cutors have not received

proper training in many

parts of the country, many

cases have been dismissed

by judges because of investi-

gation errors.

The transition to the new

justice system was under-

way before Lopez Obrador

took office in December, and

critics say he has not done

enough to support it. In fact,

the president has dramati-

cally cut funding across gov-

ernment during his first nine

months in office, including

to police forces and the at-

torney general’s office.

“The police have not ad-

apted to the new system,

and neither have prose-

cutors,” said Hope, the secu-

rity analyst, who served as

an advisor to one of Lopez

Obrador’s opponents in the

2018 presidential election.

“There is chronic under-

funding of the criminal jus-

tice system, but institution-

building is not [Lopez

Obrador’s] forte.”

The president’s security

strategy has been focused on

the creation of two elements:

a new national guard and a

cash transfer program that

provides government fund-

ing to young people who are

enrolled in school or intern-

ships.

Neither has had an im-

mediate effect on crime,

which is growing.

What is needed, Hope

said, is better-trained police

and prosecutors and better

enforcement of the country’s

laws. Widespread impunity

means criminal groups have

little incentive to refrain

from attacks such as the one

on the bar, he said.

“If an extraordinary

event like this doesn’t gener-

ate an extraordinary reac-

tion, these type of events will

just happen again and

again.”

RELATIVESand friends of victims comfort one another after a deadly bar fire in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. The
attack raised concerns that Mexico’s criminal groups may be returning to spectacular acts of violence.

Victoria RazoAFP/Getty Images

Fiery bar attack kills 27

ATTACKERS locked the bar before setting it on fire.

Its owner had refused to let a gang sell drugs there.

Pedro PardoAFP/Getty Images

[Mexico,from A1]