Friday 17 August 2018

Hundreds of trans women are being murdered in Mexico – and nothing is done


Since June 14 of this year at least ten trans women have been murdered in Mexico, continuing a cycle of violence and impunity that has claimed over 400 lives in the past decade.

The most recent case was the killing of the winner of a beauty queen pageant in the municipality of Martínez de la Torre, in the State of Veracruz. The half-naked body of Alaska Bout was found on July 25 with signs of torture and barbed wire wrapped around her neck.
Alaska Bout

Her death has resulted in a complaint from the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Specific concern has been raised with regard to security in Veracruz. According to the social anthropology research center (known as CIESAS, or “Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social”), Veracruz ranks first for the murder of trans people.

Alaska Bout was the second gay pageant queen to be assassinated this year. In May Yamileth Quintero, winner of a beauty contest in Elota, Sinaloa, was killed in the state capital of Culiacán. As a beauty queen, the death of Alaska received widespread media attention in Mexico, unlike the murders of other trans women, which were much lower profile. This has resulted in a critique that Alaska, as a well-known and talented performer, had a life that was valued higher than those trans women who lead more marginal lives, given that some of the murdered individuals were sex trade workers.

Thursday 9 August 2018

Jamilah Taib, Chair of Ottawa’s Sakto Corp, May Soon be of Interest to Authorities in Malaysia and Canada


Calls in Malaysia to expand the new government’s anti-corruption campaign to the province of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, are echoing across the Pacific to the small and insular commercial real estate community in Ottawa, Canada. 

Jamilah Taib and Andrew Leslie, MP for Orléans
At the center of the brewing storm is Ottawa-headquartered Sakto Corporation, which has hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate assets in Canada. Sakto Corporation’s Chair is Jamilah Taib, the eldest daughter of Abdul Taib Mahmud, the governor and former chief minister of Sarawak.

Abdul Taib Mahmud is a “politically exposed person” (PEP) as defined by Canada’s Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Regulations (PCMLTFR).

Jamilah Taib started her career in real estate in Ottawa with a financial gift from her father. The amount of that gift has never been revealed, though Abdul Taib Mahmud, a career public servant of humble origins, has claimed that the source of the money was a gratuity from the federal government of Malaysia.