THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

It was a place where superstition still lived, where the elders might tell stories of babies being snatched by river witches.  Less than 100 miles away is Lake Maracaibo, where on most nights of the year you can see terrifying lightning storms at the mouth of the Catatumbo River.  The indigenous storytellers claimed this odd atmospheric phenomenon, which could produce up to 240 lightning strikes in an hour, was actually millions of fireflies trying to communicate with the earth.  The image of these ruthless electrical storms suited Edwin, a restless boy embarking on his own stormy future, a boy born with lightning in his fists.

Stradley/Berserk

CARACAS, Venezuela – Former boxing champion Edwin Valero, who had a spectacular career with 27 straight kockouts and flouted a tattoo of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez on his chest, hanged himself in his jail cell Monday after being arrested in the fatal stabbing of his wife.  A man whose fists carried him from poverty in a small town to fame, Valero’s all-action style soon earned him a reputation as a tough, explosive crowd-pleaser.  Venezuelans called him “Inca”, alluding to an Indian warrior, while elsewhere he was called “Dinamita,” or dynamite.

AP, 2010