Category Archives: Americas

The race for oil: will Jamaica be the next country to drill and what does that mean for its green pledges?

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With early tests suggesting the presence of crude oil, the Caribbean island has begun to debate whether it could justify becoming a producer

Jamaica is closer than ever to drilling for oil. Tests on samples from the seabed off the Caribbean island’s south coast earlier this year identified hydrocarbons, which suggest the presence of crude oil below ground.

Jamaica imports all its fuel, which costs about $1.5-2bn (£1.1bn-1.5bn) annually, depending on global oil prices. It is a persistent drag on an economy that generated $4.3bn from tourism, its biggest earner, in 2024.

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Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

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Mark Carney announces purchase of Saab’s GlobalEye early warning aircraft to patrol Arctic territory

Canada has announced plans to buy a fleet of early warning planes from Sweden’s Saab rather than a competing option from Boeing, as the country seeks to reduce reliance on US defense firms.

Mark Carney, the prime minister, said on Wednesday that Canada would opt for Saab’s GlobalEye, which is based on Bombardier’s Global 6500 jet. Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail plane – which has suffered from delays and cost overruns – had also been in contention.

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Venezuela inmates occupy prison roof and set fire to mattresses to highlight alleged abuse

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Inmates at Barinas prison allege they were peacefully protesting when prison staff opened fire, leaving some wounded

Inmates at Venezuela’s western Barinas prison staged a protest on its roof on Sunday, piling flaming mattresses and calling for the removal of the facility’s director, whom they accused of overseeing guards as they shot unarmed prisoners.

“We want justice. They are shooting us, the guards and the wardens,” a prisoner said in a video shared by the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons, a local NGO, on X, in which a man is seen with a bullet wound in his chest.

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‘Canada is handing people over to ICE’: refugees rejected at border face US detention

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As Canada tightens asylum rules, refugees reuniting with family say they were turned over to ICE and jailed for months after failed border claims

As each day in US detention passes, Markens Appolon can feel the life he had dreamed of slipping away.

The 25-year-old fled Haiti to escape the rampant gang violence that upended his university studies in economics, and planned to join family in Montreal.

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Rubio doubtful of diplomacy with Cuba as Trump renews threat of military action

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US secretary of state says president would like a negotiated agreement with Havana but likelihood ‘is not high’

The US president, Donald Trump, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Thursday again raised the spectre of military intervention in Cuba, a renewed threat that takes on greater weight a day after the administration announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro, the island’s former leader.

“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump told reporters when asked about Cuba during an event in the Oval Office. “And it looks like I’ll be the one that does it. So I would be happy to do it.”

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Cubans outraged at US charges against Raúl Castro as fears of military strikes grow

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It’s a nerve-racking time for Havana neighbours of top Cuban officials as fears of US attack mount

A new question in being asked in Havana as people digest the news that the US has brought criminal charges against Cuba’s 94-year-old former president, Raúl Castro: who’s your neighbour?

If you happen to live near a senior figure in Cuba’s government or armed forces, others suck their teeth in an expression of concerned sympathy. For the first time, US military strikes on the island are being considered a serious possibility.

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Macron says France must address issue of reparations for its role in slave trade

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French president’s use of term comes as demand grows for formal discussion on addressing legacies of enslavement

Emmanuel Macron has said reparations for France’s role in hundreds of years of enslavement of African people is an issue that should be addressed, but he stopped short of making clear proposals.

“How to repair … is a question that must not be refused,” the French president said in a speech on the legacies of slavery at the Élysée Palace. “It’s also a question on which we must not make false promises.”

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‘It’s broken English’: MP’s attempt to speak Jamaican in parliament sparks language row

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Parliamentary rule that only English is allowed has reignited debate about language, legitimacy and postcolonial identity

When the Jamaican MP Nekeisha Burchell stood up to give her maiden speech, she was keenly aware of how much her country’s parliament mirrored the Westminster version thousands of miles away in London.

As in the UK, the session on 12 May had started with the arrival of the ceremonial mace – a 1.7-metre ornamented silver staff representing the British monarch’s authority over parliament – which now rested on a table between the government and the opposition. Despite the heat outside, debate was presided over by the speaker dressed in a ceremonial robe.

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Colombia’s climate crossroads: Trumpism casts shadow over presidential battle

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Colombia is a global leader in climate activism. Could US influence drag country to a future of mining and fracking?

Several hours after dark in a quiet Caribbean neighbourhood, a cluster of environmental activists gather on plastic chairs between a mango tree and a courtyard wall emblazoned with the words “Colombia, respira!” (Breathe, Colombia).

So many people have turned up that some have to stand. That is because tonight’s speaker is Susana Muhamad, one of the most admired socio-environmental campaigners in the world, and this is a moment of profound historical significance.

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US indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro as it seeks to oust regime

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Charges filed in Miami against 94-year-old for allegedly shooting down exiles’ planes in 1996

The United States issued a federal criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, and five others on Wednesday in a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the country’s six-decades-old communist regime.

The 94-year-old political figurehead was charged in Miami, Florida, with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft.

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Bolivia rocked by protests as US warns of ‘coup d’état’

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Clashes between demonstrators and police in La Paz have entered second week, shaking centre-right president

Protests blocking roads across Bolivia and turning the centre of the capital, La Paz, into a battleground between demonstrators and police have entered a second week.

It is the most turbulent moment of the centre-right president Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s mere six months in office since he ended nearly two decades of rule by the leftwing Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).

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Canada faces calls for investigation into death of woman after plasma donation

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International student Rodiyat Alabede, 22, died due to a ‘perfect storm’ of lax safety protocols, advocates say

Patient advocates in Canada have called for a new investigation into the death of a young woman who was donating blood plasma, describing a “perfect storm” of lax safety protocols and poorly trained staff and warning of “systemic issues” at plasma donation sites across the country.

Rodiyat Alabede, an international student at the University of Winnipeg, died of cardiac arrest shortly after a plasma donation in October 2025 at a facility operated by the Spanish healthcare company Grifols. An initial investigation by Health Canada found no links between the plasma donation and her death.

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Totó la Momposina, vocalist and Colombian music legend, dies aged 85

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The singer was one of her country’s most’s popular musical exports, and travelled the world with an evangelistic vision for spreading cumbia music

Totó la Momposina, one of the most celebrated musicians in Colombian history, has died aged 85.

Her three children announced her death from a heart attack on Instagram. “Totó was a woman who, with her voice and extraordinary dedication, carried the culture and memory of the Colombian people to the far corners of the world,” they added.

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Pressure on Mexico after two ex-officials surrender to US over alleged cartel ties

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Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum denies any links between her Morena party and organized crime

Pressure is mounting on Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, after two former top officials from the country’s Sinaloa state – both members of her Morena party – gave themselves up to US authorities over alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel.

The state’s former security minister Gerardo Mérida Sánchez crossed the border into Arizona last week and was taken into custody by US marshals, Mexico’s security ministry said. Sinaloa’s former finance minister, Enrique Díaz Vega, was taken into custody in New York.

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Cuba warns US of ‘bloodbath’ if military action follows drone claims

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Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, says any US strike would be catastrophic after reports of 300+ drones

Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has warned that any US military action against his country would lead to a “bloodbath” with incalculable consequences for regional peace and stability.

“Cuba does not represent a threat,” Díaz-Canel said in a post on X.

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Purple pain: backlash over Mexico City’s ‘axolotlisation’ for World Cup

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Mayor’s attempt to beautify the city with murals of mascot and plum paint jobs criticised as waste of resources

The giant purple axolotl peered up at Manuel Martínez from the black bitumen of the street. It was the second such painting of the rare amphibian he had walked past that morning. In recent weeks he had seen axolotl murals pop up in neighbourhoods across Mexico City.

“It’s a waste of money,” he said. “You could use that budget for fixing potholes, traffic lights, security cameras. They’re spending on something that doesn’t benefit us at all – it’s just for tourists.”

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Canada confirms first hantavirus case in isolation in British Columbia

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The person was on board the MV Hondius, the center of the outbreak that has claimed three lives

Canadian officials said on Saturday that one of the four Canadians currently quarantining in British Columbia after being exposed to the hantavirus while on board the cruise ship where the outbreak occurred has presumptively tested positive.

Speaking at news conference, Dr Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, said the individual developed mild symptoms, including fever and headache, two days ago, and that the individual and their partner, who had also been on board the cruise ship where they had been isolating together, were transferred to a hospital in Victoria for assessment and testing.

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Threatened indictment of Raúl Castro ratchets up US pressure on Cuba

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Trump administration move echoes indictment of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro as fuel crisis racks Cuba

Tensions between Cuba and US seem set to rise further amid reports that
Raúl Castro, the country’s 94-year-old former president, may soon face the type of indictment that led to the US abduction of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.

Although Raúl is officially retired, he remains the most potent figure in Cuban politics following the death of his brother Fidel in 2016, and by targeting him Washington appears to be heaping pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership at the end of an already extraordinarily intense week.

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13 men killed by US military boat strikes identified: ‘These were flesh-and-blood people’

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All victims of US strikes in eastern Pacific and the Caribbean identified so far came from extremely poor communities

A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.

It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House.

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CIA director has met officials in Havana for talks, Cuba claims

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Visit comes after US-Cuba relations deteriorated significantly, and as the island nation declared it had ‘absolutely no fuel’ because of US blockade

CIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as a way to improve dialogue between the US and the communist-run island, the Cuban government said.

The meeting took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations”, a statement said.

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