Breaking News – Support The Bitkovs https://supportthebitkovs.com/en Official Website Sun, 16 Aug 2020 04:01:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://supportthebitkovs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Support-The-Bitkovs-Favicon-2.png Breaking News – Support The Bitkovs https://supportthebitkovs.com/en 32 32 Putin’s ‘Black PR’ has arrived in Britain https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/putins-black-pr-has-arrived-in-britain/ Sun, 16 Aug 2020 03:47:08 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=2895 ESPAÑOL DISPONIBLE AQUÍ:

Christopher Steele, the author of the (in)famous Trump dossier, is right to say Britain has been ‘behind the curve’ when it comes to combating the threat posed by Russia. The UK’s political parties are being targeted by the Kremlin, he told Tory MP Damian Collins on his ‘Infotagion’ podcast, in a bid ‘to create great polarity, great partisanship, and divisions within political life’. But while dodgy donations and cyber-hacking of our parties has been well covered, Steele also touched on a lesser-know but equally malign influence Russia is playing in Britain.

‘Black PR,’ he said, has ‘grown and spread like a contagion’ from Russia ‘out into Western Europe, and into the Western world and Western democracies.’ Black PR emerged in Russia in the 1990s and, broadly put, describes the practices that were associated with the introduction of competitive (if not democratic) elections there. Waged by political consultants – or so-called ‘political technologists’ – black PR made use of kompromat (compromising material), character assassination, fake news, blackmail, the manipulation of public opinion, and a myriad of other questionable practices. It was intended to advantage the political technologists’ clients, who were frequently candidates in local, regional, and federal elections. Whatever it did, however, black PR stretched the country’s ethical, moral, and legal boundaries to their limits – often redrawing them in the process.

Some of the political technologists’ first clients were actually modernisers; those individuals who believed Russia had to progress as quickly as possible, and who claimed – publicly, at least – that the country should seek to reform along Western lines. But since he came to power in 2000, Vladimir Putin has centralised and systematised these practices in the Kremlin. He has taken control of opposition groups, ideologies, and movements, bringing so-called ‘opposition’ political parties under the Kremlin’s control. All of this has been part of the effort to convince Russians there is no alternative to Putin, who also just happens to be their saviour.

This work was led by Vladislav Surkov. Surkov was one of the original political technologists, working for the oligarchs Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky throughout the 1990s. In 1999, however, Surkov joined the Kremlin. Soon after, Putin forced Berezovsky into exile and jailed Khodorkovsky, and Surkov helped run the PR campaign. For almost two decades, Surkov coordinated the Kremlin’s activities, first as deputy head of the presidential administration and later deputy prime minister, and then as Putin’s personal advisor.

As Putin gradually hollowed-out and then removed competitive elections – as part of the process of creating what Surkov called a system of ‘managed democracy’ – political technologists moved from politics to business to ply their trade. At the same time, Russia’s authorities and regime insiders began to use a host of black PR-style tactics – such as fake news, kompromat, bribery, forgery, corruption, and intimidation – to steal companies from their legal owners, a practice known as reiderstvo (corporate raiding). As a result, black PR is now, to use Steele’s language, ‘a feature of Russian business life and business life associated with Russian actors.’

 

Take the Russian state’s illegal dismemberment of Khodorkovsky’s Yukos energy company in the early 2000s (for which a Dutch court has ordered the Russian state to pay US$50 billion (£38 billion) in compensation to the company’s shareholders). Or the treatment meted out by regime insiders to the owners of TogliattiAzot (Toaz), one of the world’s largest fertiliser producers, since the early 2010s; or the Bitkov family, former owners of North-West Timer Company, which was once one of the most successful paper-producing companies in Russia. All involved concerted black PR campaigns by state and non-state actors to discredit and damage the reputations of the individuals involved.

Steele described black PR as having ‘bled’ into the UK through the Kremlin’s disinformation and misinformation campaigns, and as part of the ‘information laundering’ process. It is most obvious in the media and on social media, but it also appears in due diligence reports, corporate intelligence investigations, litigation, arbitration, and court submissions, including – but not only – as part of the hundreds of Russian commercial disputes that are heard before London’s courts annually.

Black PR is a central aspect of the Kremlin’s subversive influence operations in the West. As well as threatening to penetrate our institutions and subvert our processes, it threatens to undermine the rule of law itself.

Dr Andrew Foxall is Director of the Russia and Eurasia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, the London-based international affairs think tank

]]> (Español) Familia Bitkov Presentó Denuncia Penal Contra Mayra Veliz, Thelma Aldana, FECI y CICIG https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/familia-bitkov-presento-denuncia-penal-contra-mayra-veliz-thelma-aldana-feci-y-cicig/ Wed, 07 Nov 2018 03:33:38 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=2160 Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Familia Bitkov denuncia penalmente a Mayra Veliz, Thelma Aldana, Juan Francisco Sandoval y CICIG

Hoy 06 de noviembre del 2018 la familia Bitkov presentaron denuncia penal ante el Ministerio Público por los delitos de:

  1. ESTAFA
  2. TRÁNSITO ILEGAL DE PERSONAS
  3. FALSEDAD MATERIAL E IDEOLÓGICA
  4. OBSTRUCCIÓN DE JUSTICIA
  5. ASOCIACIÓN ILÍCITA

en contra de:

  • Mayra Yojana Velíz López,-  ex secretaria del Ministerio Público
  • Renato Severino Severi Rivera – Representante legal de Cutino International S.A.
  • Marcos Alberto Cutino González – Socio de Cutino International S.A.
  • Keneth Biderman González – Socio de Cutino International S.A.
  • Marco Tulio Meda Mendoza – Miembro de la Esctructura Cutino

Así mismo se presentó denuncia penal por el delito de OBSTRUCCIÓN DE JUSTICIA en contra de los funcionarios del MINISTERIO PÚBLICO que ocultaron y protegieron a la estructura criminal denominada CUTINO INTERNATIONAL. SOCIEDAD ANÓNIMA y que tuvieron conocimiento de las actuaciones e investigaciones donde constaba que la señora MAYRA YOJANA VELIZ LOPEZ Secretaria General del MINISTERIO PÚBLICO había participado en la creación de los documentos de identidad y de viaje objeto de la acusación en contra de la familia Bitkov en el caso denominado como CASO MIGRACIÓN, siendo estos funcionarios los siguientes:

  • Thelma Esperanza Aldana Hernández
  • Juan Francisco Sandoval Alfaro
  • Luis Eduardo Sian
  • Rudy Manolo Herrera Lemus
  • Stuardo Ernesto Campo Aguilar
  • Abogados de la Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala CICIG

 

 

 

]]> Secretary Pompeo’s Call With Guatemala President Jimmy Morales https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/ee-uu-reitera-el-apoyo-a-la-soberania-de-guatemala/ Thu, 06 Sep 2018 20:56:42 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=2116 ESPAÑOL DISPONIBLE AQUÍ: 

PRESS RELEASE:

Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 6, 2018

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Heather Nauert:‎

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo called Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales today. The Secretary reiterated the United States’ support for Guatemalan sovereignty. They discussed the importance of continuing our cooperation in the fight against corruption and impunity and the Guatemalan government’s efforts working with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The Secretary expressed continued support of the United States for a reformed CICIG and committed to continue working with Guatemala on implementing the reforms in the coming year.

SOURCE: https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/09/285757.htm

 

]]> Wicker Asks Health Secretary to Stop Obamacare’s Abortion Coverage Expansion https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/senador-roger-wicker-pide-frenar-la-expansion-del-aborto-en-ee-uu/ Thu, 06 Sep 2018 20:33:49 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=2109 ESPAÑOL DISPONIBLE AQUÌ:

Press Release

Sep 06 2018

Wicker Asks Health Secretary to Stop Obamacare’s Abortion Coverage Expansion

Additional Steps Needed to Separate Abortion Coverage From Taxpayer-Supported Health-Care Plans

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker wrote to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to request the Administration take additional steps to mitigate Obamacare’s unprecedented expansion of abortion coverage. Wicker’s letter was signed by 18 other U.S. Senators. Wicker and his colleagues criticized Obama-era regulations that failed to enforce Section 1303 of Obamacare, which requires insurers offering abortion coverage to collect a separate payment for that coverage.

The Senators wrote in part, “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should issue new regulations aligning with legislative intent that insurance companies comply with and collect the abortion surcharge separately. Faithfully applying the law as written through new regulations will improve consumer awareness of the abortion surcharge.”

They went on to say, “As long as Section 1303 is implemented through current Obama-era regulations, its enforcement will remain sorely deficient.”

Wicker’s letter was signed by U.S. Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Steve Daines, R-Mont., Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Deb Fischer, R-Neb., John Hoeven, R-N.D., James Inhofe, R-Okla., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., James Risch, R-Idaho, Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., John Thune, R-S.D., and Todd Young, R-Ind.

Click here for a PDF copy of the full letter, the text of which is available below:

Dear Secretary Azar,

The 2010 enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148), also known as Obamacare, broke with the longstanding safeguards of the Hyde Amendment. For more than 40 years, the Hyde Amendment prohibited federal funding for elective abortions and health insurance plans that include coverage for elective abortions. Since that time, legislative proposals like No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Insurance Full Disclosure Act (S. 184) have been introduced in the Senate to remedy this severe problem with Obamacare. Until S. 184 is enacted into law, the Administration must take steps to mitigate Obamacare’s unprecedented expansion of abortion coverage.

In an effort to subvert the Hyde Amendment, Democrats established separate abortion accounting requirements in Section 1303 of Obamacare (42 U.S.C. § 18023). If an insurance issuer elects to offer abortion coverage, Section 1303 requires separate payment of at least $1 per enrollee per month as an abortion surcharge. While a plain reading of the statute makes clear that this surcharge must be separate from other payments, the Obama Administration failed to enforce Section 1303 and undermined the segregation of funds requirement through permissive regulations.

While we welcomed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ October 2017 guidance regarding enforcement of Section 1303, meaningful enforcement requires new regulations. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should issue new regulations aligning with legislative intent that insurance companies comply with and collect the abortion surcharge separately. Faithfully applying the law as written through new regulations will improve consumer awareness of the abortion surcharge.

The federal government should not provide taxpayer funding for abortion-covering plans. However, until this procedure that is morally opposed by a significant number of Americans is eliminated from Obamacare, HHS must enforce the law as written. As long as Section 1303 is implemented through current Obama-era regulations, its enforcement will remain sorely deficient. 

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Permalink: https://www.wicker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/9/wicker-asks-health-secretary-to-stop-obamacare-s-abortion-coverage-expansion

]]> TEXAS BORDER CONGRESSMEN RESPOND TO GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT’S DECISION NOT TO RENEW CICIG https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/los-congresistas-fronterizos-de-texas-responden-a-la-decision-del-presidente-guatemalteco-de-no-renovar-la-cicig/ Thu, 06 Sep 2018 18:20:48 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=2104

ESPAÑOL DISPONIBLE AQUÍ: 

Press Release

September 6, 2018

WASHINGTON – Congressmen Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15), Filemon Vela (TX-34), and Henry Cuellar (TX-28) issued a joint statement in response to Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales’ decision not to renew the mandate for the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, more commonly referred to as CICIG (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala). The current mandate expires in September 2019.

Read the full statement here:

“While a great experiment in theory, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala seems to have recently failed to adhere to its core principles and execute its central mission of strengthening rule of law in the country. We fear that CICIG may have compromised the integrity of this experiment to the point that no country will accept a similar entity in the future.

“The United States does not fight impunity with impunity, and cannot blindly support institutions that violate a nation’s sovereignty. We must take a different approach. Every investment that our country makes at home and abroad must be held to the highest standard and closely monitored and evaluated by the appropriate personnel. The American taxpayer and our allies deserve nothing less than effectiveness, transparency, and mutual respect.

“As the United States continues to partner with Guatemala in its fight against corruption, we encourage greater oversight by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that laws are applied in a fair and balanced way. Our judges, attorneys, and law enforcement personnel are some of the most experienced in the world and best positioned to take on this responsibility and provide expert advice and assistance to one of our most important allies in Central America in a manner that is respectful, productive, and yields a better return on investment.”

###

SOURCE: https://gonzalez.house.gov/media/press-releases/texas-border-congressmen-respond-guatemalan-president-s-decision-not-renew

]]> (Español) Inspector General del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU. Investigará a CICIG https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/inspector-general-del-departamento-de-estado-de-ee-uu-investigara-a-cicig/ Thu, 12 Jul 2018 10:50:23 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=1991 Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

 

El día 11 de julio del año 2018 durante la audiencia del Comité De  Relaciones Exteriores del Congreso de Estados Unidos se determinó la necesidad de que el Inspector General del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU junto a un equipo de investigadores se constituya en Guatemala para investigar a la CICIG específicamente por la injerencia del Kremlin en la persecución hacia la familia de migrantes y empresarios rusos Bitkovs.

ES IMPORTANTE DESTACAR QUE: Los medios de comunicación social en Guatemala NO MOSTRARON la intervención completa del Honorable Ed Royce (R-CA), Presidente Audiencia del Comité de Asuntos Exteriores así como del vicepresidente de la Comisión de Helsinki Honorable Christopher Smith (R NJ-4) al momento que cuestionaron  al subsecretario adjunto principal interino del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU Kenneth Merten sobre el papel que CICIG ocupa en la persecución de la familia Rusa Bitkov en Guatemala  por lo que a continuación presentamos la intervención completa que ningún medio de comunicación tuvo el valor de mostrar…

 

I PARTE Audiencia del Comité de Relaciones Exteriores del Congreso de Estados Unidos 11 julio de 2018

II PARTE Audiencia del Comité de Relaciones Exteriores del Congreso de Estados Unidos 11 julio 2018

 

]]> Guatemala, Russia and the Bitkovs https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/english-guatemala-russia-and-the-bitkovs/ Sun, 01 Jul 2018 23:11:31 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=1977
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The family remains in jeopardy thanks to a U.S.-funded rogue U.N. agency.

Guatemala, Russia and the Bitkovs

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady

It’s been two months since Guatemala’s Constitutional Court cleared a Russian migrant family of all criminal charges related to their use of illegally issued documents. The April 25 high-court exoneration of Igor Bitkov, his wife, Irina, and their daughter, Anastasia, was widely heralded, including in this newspaper.

Yet the Bitkovs still aren’t free.

That’s because the same court now says that Igor Bitkov has to stand trial again on related charges. The cases of Irina and Anastasia remain in limbo. All three are out of jail but confined to Guatemala City.

The Bitkovs’ story deserves to be further aired in the U.S. press because their continued persecution comes at the hands of a United Nations agency—the Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG—that is funded by the U.S. and itself operates with impunity.

Recall that the entrepreneurial Bitkovs fled Russia in 2008 because the Kremlin was trying to put them in prison for refusing to cooperate with Putin extortionists. The Russian state-owned VTB bank followed the family to Guatemala and hired the local law firm of Comte & Font to bring charges. VTB’s Guatemalan lawyers couldn’t prove the $6 million fraud allegation. But CICIG went to court in support of VTB’s effort to put the family in jail for using fake documents received from Guatemalan migration offices.

It can’t be a coincidence the high court’s April ruling that the Bitkovs had no criminal liability came two days before Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.), co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission, was to hold a public hearing in Washington about the case. The hearing promised to expose CICIG’s nasty role—including collusion with the Russian government—in the travesty suffered by the Bitkov family.

Immediately after the high-court decision, CICIG apologists launched a full-court press on Capitol Hill to cover up the U.N. agency’s many transgressions. William Browder, who has been working on behalf of the Bitkovs and was preparing to testify at the hearing, told me by telephone from London last week that he was asked by congressional staffers in Washington to meet with Alfonso Carrillo, a Guatemalan lawyer.

He says that Mr. Carrillo tried to convince him that CICIG is doing “really good work and that whatever I said in the hearing, not to speak negatively about CICIG.” Mr. Browder says Mr. Carrillo didn’t reveal that he had been given power of attorney by Russia’s state-owned Gazprombank. Nor, Mr. Browder says, did Mr. Carrillo tell him that when Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales declared CICIG lead prosecutor Iván Velásquez persona non grata in Guatemala for politicizing the CICIG mandate, Mr. Carrillo had been one of several lawyers who filed for an injunction to block it.

Mr. Carrillo told me by email on Friday that Gazprombank gave power of attorney to several lawyers at his firm. He said he never accepted or acted on it—and it expired in 2015. He also said neither he nor his firm have ever been paid by CICIG. Mr. Carrillo didn’t respond to specific questions and said he needed more time.

Henry Comte of Comte & Font, which was retained by VTB bank in 2012, has been an alternate on the Constitutional Court since 2016. In an email to me in March, his partner David Font told me that Mr. Comte had recused himself from any court hearings dealing with the Bitkov case.

Lower-court judge Erika Aifan challenged the April 25 high-court ruling to release the Bitkovs, and CICIG supported her challenge. On June 21 the Constitutional Court did an about-face to satisfy both parties.

It ruled that by attaining a driver’s license and credit cards Mr. Bitkov committed separate crimes. It ordered a new trial.

This is nonsense. An immigrant, believing he is legal, will naturally take the next step to drive a car legally and access credit. What’s more, the U.N.’s Palermo Convention, to which Guatemala is a signatory, and the Guatemalan migration code protect migrants who are victims of fraud while entering, staying in or leaving a country.

CICIG supporters say it has done some good. In the “migration case” it busted small fries in a crime ring inside government offices. But it never got the big fish. And even if it had, that’s not carte blanche to flout the law. Scores of Guatemalans are languishing in jail without trials under CICIG investigations.

Some in Washington get it. A senior congressional aide told me that the “State Department is sharply divided over CICIG,” with Trump appointees arguing that the “hold” requested by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on $6 million of CICIG funding be used to “leverage reform of an out-of-control agency.” The aide added: “Still, a group of career diplomats are fighting to completely deny all evidence of CICIG’s complicity in the gross injustice to the Bitkovs, as well as its politicization and loss of credibility in Guatemala.”

Who knew the human rights of migrants were such a low priority for congressional staffers and Foggy Bottom?

Write to O’Grady@wsj.com.

]]> Your Taxpayer Dollars at the U.N. https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/english-your-taxpayer-dollars-at-the-u-n/ Wed, 09 May 2018 23:44:34 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=1834

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The case of the Bitkovs gets more outrageous.

The head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), Colombian Ivan Velasquez (C), attends the ceremony in Guatemala City, May 7. PHOTO: JOHAN ORDONEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By  The Editorial Board

A United Nations prosecutor partly funded by the U.S. was supposed to be a cure for corruption in Guatemala. But the U.N. International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala—or CICIG by its Spanish initials—has had almost no oversight since it was established in 2006. Now it too is accused of corruption and politicizing the judiciary.

There’s nothing strange about absolute power run amuck. But it is weird that an army from the State Department, nonprofits and some business groups are resisting sunlight for a U.N. body that answers to no one.

The good news is that Republican Sens. Roger Wicker (Miss.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Mike Lee (Utah) and Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) are more insistent. On Monday they sent a letter to the Chairman of the House subcommittee on state and foreign operations, Rep. Hal Rogers (R., Ky.), requesting a hold on a $6 million disbursement for CICIG until “Congress has conducted appropriate oversight.”

The signers are alarmed by the testimony of Guatemalan lawyers for the Russian family of Igor Bitkov at a Helsinki Commission hearing in Washington on April 27. The attorneys recounted the violations of civil liberties that the family has suffered at the hands of CICIG in cooperation with a Russian bank and the Guatemalan attorney general. CICIG refused to answer questions before the commission.

Guatemala’s constitutional court has upheld a ruling that the family are migrants and committed only administrative offenses. But rather than release them, on Wednesday a lower-court judge delivered a written order for a new trial for Mr. Bitkov.

CICIG is an unelected U.N. body and lead prosecutor Iván Velásquez has the power of a viceroy. He has cowed many locals into supporting him if they want to stay out of jail. Others are cheering him on as he threatens to bring down President Jimmy Morales. That’s something to keep in mind as CICIG advocates bombard Capitol Hill to defend CICIG’s unchecked authority.

Their best argument is that CICIG has done some good things. Yet that will come out in any investigation—as will abuses of power. If Republican chairmen with the authority over taxpayer money have any interest in stabilizing Central America, they will halt the CICIG financing and begin a review.

]]> (Español) El Impacto de la Comisión de Helsinki – Caso Bitkov https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/el-impacto-de-la-comision-de-helsinki-caso-bitkov/ Tue, 08 May 2018 07:35:37 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=1750  

 

]]> In Guatemala, vows to fight graft despite US senator’s hold https://supportthebitkovs.com/en/en-guatemala-promete-luchar-contra-el-soborno-a-pesar-del-control-del-senador-de-estados-unidos/ Tue, 08 May 2018 01:36:43 +0000 http://supportthebitkovs.com/?p=1780

Español Disponible aquí:

May 07, 2018 07:39 PM
Updated 1 hour 46 minutes ago

GUATEMALA CITY 

Backers of efforts to combat corruption in Guatemala are vowing that work will not be stopped by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio putting a hold on $6 million in U.S. contributions for a U.N.-sponsored commission probing graft in the country.

Commission chief Ivan Velasquez said he would not comment but tweeted Sunday: “The fight against impunity and against corruption must continue; it does not wait; it cannot be suspended or delayed. There is neither time nor space for pessimism, uncertainty, discouragement or fear.”

Guatemalan lawmaker Andrea Villagran said Monday that lobbyists in Washington are misinterpreting the fight against corruption in Guatemala and is hopeful that Rubio’s request will not last.

“What Senator Rubio says should not do significant harm, since it is not a person who makes decisions — it is a group,” she said. “And we understand U.S. politics. They are institutional regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in power.”

Rubio announced the hold Friday, which affects funding already authorized by Congress but not yet disbursed.

In a statement, he said he was concerned the commission may have been “manipulated and used by radical elements and Russia’s campaign against the Bitkov family in Guatemala.”

Guatemala’s highest court recently overturned a prison conviction for the three Bitkovs, who were accused of using forged documents to live in the country. They claim to be the victims of a plot orchestrated by Moscow but have produced no evidence to support their allegation.

Rubio also sent a letter to Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales asking him to guarantee the Bitkovs’ safety.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article210664774.html

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