Category Archives: Americas

Peru’s discontented voters face straight left-right choice in election runoff

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Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of 1990s leader Alberto, is vying with a congressman to become country’s ninth president in a decade

Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday in an election runoff that pits a perennial rightwing candidate, Keiko Fujimori, against a leftist congressman, Roberto Sánchez. Amid rising crime, chronic political instability, corruption scandals and voter apathy, they are vying to become Peru’s ninth president in a decade.

Fujimori, who is the daughter of the late president Alberto Fujimori, won 17% of the vote in the first round in April. Sánchez, a former trade and tourism minister, took 12 % of the vote, edging out Rafael López Aliaga, an ultra-conservative former Lima mayor. The stage is set for a polarised left-right replay of the country’s last election in 2021.

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‘Historic’: Canadian warehouse workers sign first-ever union deal with Walmart

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Union says collective agreement is just the start of a broader fight to unionize major employers across the country

Canadian warehouse workers have signed the first-ever collective agreement with Walmart, a breakthrough labour organizers are calling a “historic and powerful step”.

But the union says the deal with a corporation long hostile to organized labour is only an opening salvo in a broader fight to unionize major employers across the country.

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US imposes new sanctions on Cuban president and Castro family members

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US secretary of state Marco Rubio says anyone providing services to listed entities ‘is at risk of sanctions themselves’

The United States has announced fresh economic sanctions on Cuba’s president and some of his immediate family, alongside members of the Castro family, in Washington’s latest ramping up of pressure on its communist-led neighbour.

Among those targeted were the son and a grandson of former president Raúl Castro, who no longer holds an official position but remains a key figure on decisions about the future of the island.

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Canada endorses embattled marine park’s plan to relocate 30 beluga whales

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Beluga whales, which Marineland threatened to euthanize in 2025, will be moved to sanctuaries in Spain or across US

Canada and an embattled marine park have reached a tentative deal on the future of 30 beluga whales, ending a saga that has captivated the public and angered animal rights groups.

The federal fisheries ministry announced this week that all of Marineland’s belugas would be shipped to either Spain or one of four locations in the US, ending whale captivity in Canada.

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Outrage in Argentina after two teen girls murdered as femicide crisis endures

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Country is shaken by the brutal murders of two girls, aged 14 and 17, whose bodies were discovered just days apart

Argentina has reacted with fury after the bodies of two murdered teenage girls were found just two days apart. The latest killings underscore the South American country’s enduring femicide crisis despite years of feminist campaigning, and have prompted alarm over the decision to cut support for victims of gender-based violence under the far-right administration of Javier Milei.

Police found the remains of Agostina Vega, 14, on Saturday, in a field on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba. She had been fatally strangled and her body had been dismembered, according to local media reports.

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Kidnappings, threats and ‘protection fees’: how can Mexico confront rise in deadly extortion?

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With corrupt police on the streets and shopkeepers forced to pay gangs, president has vowed to tackle crime that now affects all parts of society

It was about 11pm and Luis* was about to get into an Uber to go home when the police car pulled up. One of the officers frisked him and produced two plastic bags with what looked like drugs: one contained some sort of powder, the other little crystals. Luis had never seen them before.

Luis, who asked not to use his real name for fear of reprisals, insisted that the drugs weren’t his, but the officers didn’t seem to care. They shoved him into the back of the police truck and drove into the night.

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Trump administration proposes 25% tariffs on Brazil despite US trade surplus

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US claims world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in ‘unreasonable’ trade practices that ‘restrict US commerce’

The Trump administration proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil, charging that the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in trade practices that are “unreasonable’’ and that “burden or restrict US commerce”.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he received the decision “with indignation”. The Brazil president also blamed the decision by the US administration on his rival in October’s elections, Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator who visited Washington last week. The senator is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, once nicknamed “the Trump of the Tropics” by his allies.

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Cricket Canada suspended over allegations of gang-linked corruption

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ICC’s decision comes amid growing concerns the team is being influenced by members of a notorious gang in India

Cricket’s international governing body has suspended Canada over what it described as “serious breaches of its membership obligations”, dealing the latest blow to an organization that critics say has become a “laughing stock” within the sport.

The suspension also comes amid growing concerns that one of Canada’s fastest-growing sports is being influenced by members of a notorious gang that operates with impunity from an Indian prison cell.

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Musket balls and a burnt hull: evidence of real pirates of the Caribbean found in Bahamas

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Exclusive: First shipwrecks found in Nassau harbour on New Providence, once the hideout of Blackbeard and Calico Jack

The first shipwrecks linked to the real pirates of the Caribbean in the Bahamas have been discovered by an international team co-directed by a British marine archaeologist.

Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham were among pirates who, between the 1690s and 1720s, turned Nassau on the island of New Providence into a hideout where they plotted their next heists on the high seas and divided up their plunder.

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Mexico City police teargas teachers’ protest 10 days before World Cup

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Teachers associated with CNTE union were marching toward Zócalo for salary raises and reversal of pension laws

Riot police fired teargas at teachers who were marching toward Mexico City’s historic Zócalo plaza, just days before the square is expected to host the 2026 World Cup “Fan Fest”. The incident is the second time police have clashed with teachers in the past week, and more conflict is likely as Mexico City prepares to hold the opening game of the Fifa World Cup on 11 June.

“This event will have to be suspended,” Filiberto Frausto, a union leader, told AFP, which witnessed police firing teargas on 1 June. “A cause like ours should be far above – it’s far more important than a little bit of distraction and fun.”

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Trump admirer’s surprise first-round win is a blow to Colombia’s traditional conservatives

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Success of far-right presidential candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, suggests some voters are ‘fed up with politics’

The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda have just under three weeks to compete for the roughly 3.6m votes that did not go to either of them in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election.

That is no insignificant number, given that De la Espriella’s lead over Cepeda amounted to little more than 670,000 votes – 43.7% to 40.9%.

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Colombia’s far-right presidential candidate Espriella wins first round of vote ahead of runoff

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Lawyer and Trump admirer has risen rapidly in the polls and will face Iván Cepeda in election runoff in three weeks

The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday and will face senator Iván Cepeda, the candidate backed by leftwing president Gustavo Petro, in the runoff.

With 100% of ballots counted, the outsider and Donald Trump admirer Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote – just over 10.3m votes – compared with 40.9% (about 9.6m votes) for Cepeda, a philosopher and human rights activist who has served as a senator since 2014.

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Colombia goes to polls in election pitting outgoing leader’s ally against pro-Trump candidates

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Ballots are being cast in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential elections

Colombians are casting ballots in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential election, choosing between candidates with radically diverging visions for the future of peace in a country haunted by decades of armed conflict.

The vote on Sunday, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

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Colombia prepares to go to polls in election shadowed by resurgence of political violence

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Sunday’s presidential vote is contest between left and right – and between contradictory proposals for dealing with the decades-long armed conflict

Mateo Pérez Rueda was one internship away from completing a degree in political science. The 24-year-old also worked as a bicycle delivery rider and sold fruit salads and juice to finance his passion: the Colombian independent digital magazine El Confidente.

On 4 May he travelled to Briceño, in the western province of Antioquia, to report on the long-running conflict between the army, paramilitaries and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

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Alarm at Mexico bill allowing elections to be annulled for ‘foreign interference’

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Opposition says constitutional amendment would give bill ruling party carte blanche to overturn will of voters

Amid fierce criticism from opposition groups, Mexico’s senate has passed ‌a constitutional amendment to include “foreign interference” as grounds to annul election results in the country.

The bill, which was presented by the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, defines foreign interference as “illicit financing, propaganda, the systematic ⁠dissemination of misinformation, digital manipulation, and ⁠the intervention of foreign governments ⁠or agencies”.

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Lula says Brazil will not be treated like ‘tinpot country’ after US designates gangs as terrorists

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Marco Rubio made announcement after meeting president’s far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro

Brazil will not be treated as a “tinpot country,” the country’s president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, said on Friday after the United States designated Brazil’s two largest criminal gangs, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, as foreign terrorist organisations.

The announcement, made by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, on Thursday, is being widely seen in Brazil as a setback for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president who had strongly opposed the designation – and a boost for Lula’s main challenger in October’s presidential election, the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

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Anger at decision not to prosecute Canadian suicide kit supplier in UK

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Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in Canada to sending products internationally, knowing they would probably be used to end lives

Bereaved families whose loved ones were the victims of an online supplier of suicide kits say they feel insulted by a decision not to prosecute him in the UK.

Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in a court in Ontario, Canada, to 14 charges of aiding suicide and sending products internationally in the knowledge that they were likely to be used to end lives. He is due to be sentenced at a later date.

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Guatemala requests US military cooperation against drug trafficking

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Central American country says its president spoke with Pete Hegseth to confirm terms of cooperation

Guatemala has requested US military cooperation spanning access to equipment, training and experts to assist Guatemalan operations against drug trafficking, the country’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, said on Thursday.

The joint plans stopped short of US military operations on Guatemalan soil and fall within existing bilateral agreements, the government noted.

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Clashes between armed groups in Colombia kill at least 52

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Rival groups are vying for territorial control of strategic cocaine production and trafficking region

At least 52 guerrilla fighters have been killed in clashes between two rival armed groups vying for territorial control of a strategic cocaine production and trafficking region in south-east Colombia, a faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) involved in the fighting has said.

The clashes, the most violent in recent months, took place in the jungles of the department of Guaviare, near the village of Barranco Colorado.

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Carney calls for new US-Canada partnership to ‘help make America great again’

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Canada prime minister urges greater economic cooperation between the two countries in speech delivered in New York

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney has called for a new relationship with the United States to “help make America great again”.

In a speech delivered in New York on Thursday, Carney said that there should be a “true partnership” that reimagines cooperation in specific sectors challenged by global competition.

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