Category Archives: Americas

Colombia to pay reparations for role in extermination of leftwing party

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Inter-American Court of Human Rights concludes state allowed eradication of 6,000 Patriotic Union party members in 1980s

Colombia has pledged to pay reparations to victims after the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR) concluded the state allowed the systematic extermination of the leftwing Patriotic Union (UP) party in the 1980s and 90s.

The UP was a political party created out of a peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc) guerrillas in 1985 but 6,000 of its members were wiped out by rightwing paramilitaries, narcos and the Colombian military.

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Key suspects in killing of Haiti president Jovenel Moïse ‘sent to US for trial’

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Investigations in Haiti have reached a virtual standstill after threats and intimidation against judges

Four key suspects in the killing of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse were transferred to the US for prosecution, according to officials, as the case stagnates in Haiti amid death threats against local judges.

The suspects in custody include James Solages, 37, and Joseph Vincent, 57, two Haitian-Americans who were among the first arrested after Moïse was shot 12 times at his private home near the capital of Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021.

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Canada: PM’s residence is falling to bits – but who’s willing to pay for repairs?

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The once grand 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, with leaky roof and mould after decades of negligence, is in dire need of an upgrade

Once home to Canada’s powerful lumber barons, 24 Sussex Drive, tucked away in a forested enclave of the capital, is one of the country’s most symbolically important homes.

But decades of negligence have left the official residence of the prime minister plagued with mould, cracked windows, failing plumbing and an electric system widely seen as a fire hazard.

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Jair Bolsonaro applies for six-month tourist visa to stay in US

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Ex-Brazil president who has been in Florida since 30 December is being investigated for attempt to topple country’s government

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing investigation as part of an inquiry into an alleged attempt to topple the country’s government, has filed a request for a six-month visitor visa to stay in the US.

The former leader is understood to have entered the US on an A-1 visa reserved for sitting heads of state, which would expire on Tuesday, 30 days from the end of his presidential term.

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Venezuela: fears new bill will put stranglehold on civil society

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Legislation would force organisations to provide financial records to government with threat of bans for political or security reasons

New legislation proposed by the Venezuelan government to regulate civil society groups would kill the last functioning remnant of the country’s democracy and take it a step closer to a police state, leading NGOs have warned.

The bill passed its first reading in the country’s legislature on Tuesday and, if approved in a second reading, will obligate NGOs to provide the government with all their financial records so that their political agendas and funding can be scrutinised.

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Peru’s president renews call for elections this year to bring end to protests

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Dina Boluarte threatens constitutional reform if lawmakers fail to bring forward national vote

Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, has made a renewed appeal for congress to hold early elections as a way to end weeks of deadly protests, warning that otherwise she would seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen.

The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily protests since 7 December, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve congress and rule by decree.

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Peru’s beleaguered president urges congress to bring 2024 elections forward

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Dina Boluarte calls for vote to be held in December after weeks of anti-government protests since overthrow of former president

Peru’s beleaguered president, Dina Boluarte, has urged Congress to bring forward elections scheduled for April 2024 to the end of this year as anti-government protests and blockades intensify across the country.

Boluarte, who has refused to step down despite furious nationwide protests calling for her to resign, said on Friday that elections should be brought forward to December in an attempt to ease the seven weeks of unrest that has claimed 57 lives – mostly civilians killed in clashes with the security forces.

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Brazil: dozens of Indigenous children hospitalised amid health crisis

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Health secretary of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, says 59 children in hospital, 45 of them from the Yanomami people

Dozens of Indigenous children suffering from malnutrition and acute diseases have been hospitalised in northern Brazil, with relatives in hammocks holding their emaciated frames in scenes that underscore the gravity of a public health crisis.

The health secretary of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, said on Friday that 59 Indigenous children were currently at the only pediatric hospital in the state, 45 of them from the Yanomami people. Eight were under intensive care.

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Gunfire reported near Haiti PM’s home after rebel police rampage through capital

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Police protesting the killings of fellow officers by gangs stormed the airport and surrounded the prime minister

Disgruntled police officers have rampaged through the streets of Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, blocking roads and forcing their way into the country’s main airport where they briefly prevented prime minister Ariel Henry from leaving. Later there were reports of heavy gunfire near his official residence.

Police are protesting the killings of officers by Haitian gangs. At least 10 officers have been murdered in the past week; another is missing and one more has severe bullet wounds, according to the Haitian national police.

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Toronto public transport to get more police as random attacks hit ‘crisis level’

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Police chief says 80 officers will be immediately dispatched to subways and stations as attacks bring city to ‘crisis point’

Toronto police has announced plans to deploy more officers on the city’s public transport system as a transit workers’ union warned that a string of random attacks on passengers had brought Canada’s largest city to “crisis point”.

The city’s police chief, Myron Demkiw, said on Thursday that 80 officers would be immediately dispatched to subways and stations “to enhance the safety and security” of transit users. Earlier in the day, police arrested one person following reports of teens shooting at a passenger with a BB gun.

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Human activity and drought ‘degrading more than a third of Amazon rainforest’

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Fires, land conversion, logging and water shortages have weakened resilience of 2.5m sq km of forest, says study

Human activity and drought may have degraded more than a third of the Amazon rainforest, double the previous estimate, according to a study that heightens concerns that the globally important ecosystem is slipping towards a point of no return.

Fires, land conversion, logging and water shortages, have weakened the resilience of up to 2.5m sq km of the forest, an area 10 times the size of the UK. This area is now drier, more flammable and more vulnerable than before, prompting the authors to warn of “megafires” in the future.

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Mexico City’s crumbling metro system casts shadow on mayor’s 2024 ambitions

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String of mishaps on cantankerous subway system could throw a wrench in Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidential aspirations

Smoke filled the subway station, the tunnel turning gray in the choking haze as hundreds of passengers were evacuated from the train. More than a dozen were treated for smoke inhalation, the authorities said, after a short circuit apparently caused the wafting fumes.

The incident on Monday, which soon billowed across Mexican social media, is just the latest in a string of mishaps on Mexico City’s cantankerous subway system which have left more than two dozen people dead – and potentially thrown a major wrench into the presidential aspirations of the capital’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum.

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Eccentric names the norm in Brazil but ‘Samba’ rejected as too outlandish

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São Paulo registry office snubs music star Seu Jorge’s choice for newborn son, despite far more unusual names being accepted

As the country that produced footballers called Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira and Élvis Vieira Araújo, Brazil is no stranger to unconventional – albeit familiar-sounding – names.

A scan of the names of the far-right vandals who were arrested for storming government buildings in Brasília earlier this month confirms the Brazilian penchant for eye-catching monikers. The list throws up a Bach and a Mozart, as well as a Ditter Marx and creative twists on more conventional first names, such as Marileide (Mary Lady), Rosemeire (Rosemary), and Dawydy (David).

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More journalists killed in Latin America and Caribbean than Ukraine in 2022

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Committee to Protect Journalist reports region accounted for almost half of the 67 deaths worldwide

More journalists were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean than in any other part of the world last year, including the Ukraine war zone, the press watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

In a report released on Tuesday, the group said that, globally, at least 67 journalists and media workers had been killed in 2022, nearly double the 2021 figure of 45.

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Brazilian police name alleged ‘mastermind’ behind murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Police chief says Rubens Villar Coelho, whose nickname is Colômbia, ordered the murders of the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert

Brazilian police have named the alleged mastermind behind the murders of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon last year.

Rubens Villar Coelho, whose nickname is Colômbia, was first arrested on separate charges last July – one month after the two men were murdered in the Javari valley region of the Amazon. He was released in October but was rearrested last month for breaking his bail terms.

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Mexico’s ex-security chief took ‘millions in bribes’ from cartel, US court hears

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Trial begins in Brooklyn court for Genaro García Luna, who is accused of protecting the violent Sinaloa cartel

The trial of a former top Mexican law enforcement official got under way in a Brooklyn court on Monday, one of the most significant drug trafficking cases since the prosecution of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán more than four years ago.

Genaro García Luna, who ran Mexico’s version of the FBI before being appointed to lead the country’s security ministry – and therefore its war on drug trafficking groups – is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for granting protection to the violent Sinaloa cartel.

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Brazil’s female diplomats in new equality push after dark days of Bolsonaro

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Movement to tackle lack of diversity within Brazil’s foreign office coincides with Lula’s return to power

More than a century after Maria José de Castro Rebello Mendes became, in 1918, the first woman to enter Brazil’s diplomatic service, the country’s female diplomats have launched a new push for equal rights and opportunity. Women make up less than 25% of Brazil’s diplomatic corps and just 12% of ambassadors.

“We are blossoming at this moment of democratic government,” said Irene Vida Gala, a senior diplomat who served as ambassador to Ghana and is now the president of the newly created Association of Female Brazilian Diplomats.

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Jair Bolsonaro accused of acts of genocide against Amazonian group

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Brazilian president says predecessor emboldened wildcat miners which led to wrecked forests and disease and death among Indigenous people

Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon, amid public outrage over a humanitarian catastrophe in the country’s largest Indigenous territory.

Lula visited the Amazon state of Roraima on Saturday to denounce the plight of the Yanomami, whose supposedly protected lands have been plunged into crisis by government neglect and the explosion of illegal mining.

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Landmark deals give Indigenous key role in Canada resource projects

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YQT community signs unprecedented agreement with coal company giving Indigenous leadership ‘veto’ on proposed project

Two landmark deals in western Canada could reshape the role of Indigenous nations in resource development projects, placing greater power in the hands of groups that have long been excluded and signalling a possible shift in how industry and governments negotiate with communities on the frontlines of environmental degradation.

In recent years, a string of fierce battles over pipelines have put a spotlight on the fractious nature of resource extraction projects, often pitting First Nations communities against powerful companies.

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Police violently raid Lima university and shut Machu Picchu amid Peru unrest

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Students say they were beaten and thrown out of dormitories as authorities crack down on protests against president

Scores of police raided a Lima university on Saturday, smashing down the gates with an armoured vehicle, firing teargas and detaining more than 200 people who had come to the Peruvian capital to take part in anti-government protests.

Images showed dozens of people lying face down on the ground at San Marcos University after the surprise police operation. Students said they were pushed, kicked and hit with truncheons as they were forced out of their dormitories.

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