Category Archives: Americas

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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Lula sacks head of Brazilian army after far-right insurrection

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Júlio Cesar de Arruda reportedly stopped police detaining suspected rioters who took refuge outside army headquarters

The head of the Brazilian army has been sacked by the country’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after claims the commander tried to shield rightwing rioters from arrest after the 8 January insurrection in Brasília.

Gen Júlio Cesar de Arruda, who only took up the role in late December, was removed from his position on Saturday, nearly two weeks after supporters of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro brought havoc to Brazil’s capital in what Lula’s administration called a botched coup attempt.

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Dozens injured and police stations attacked as protests continue in Peru

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Police in Lima use teargas on demonstrators, with authorities claiming massive fire at historic building was ‘duly planned’

Dozens of Peruvians were injured when tensions flared again on Friday night as police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations that are spreading across the country.

In the capital, Lima, police officers used teargas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets, TV footage showed.

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Lula to visit Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous territory amid vow to tackle crisis

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Move comes after country’s minister for Indigenous people says issue is an ‘absolute priority’

Brazil’s first-ever minister for Indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara, has vowed to make tackling the humanitarian crisis plaguing the country’s largest Indigenous territory “an absolute priority”, as she prepared to fly into the region with the new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Under the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, thousands of illegal gold miners poured into the Yanomami enclave in the Amazon, bringing violence, pollution and a healthcare calamity captured in a recent series of photographs of severely malnourished children and adults.

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Brothers killed in Canada bank shootout aimed to kill as many police as possible

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Isaac and Mathew Auchterlonie were heavily armed, had strong anti-government views and did not expect to survive 2022 incident

Two brothers who died in a hail of gunfire last summer outside a Canadian bank had been planning their attack for years, with a goal to kill as many officers as possible, police said on Friday.

An investigation by the Vancouver Island integrated major crime unit found that 22-year-old Isaac Auchterlonie and his brother, Mathew, showed up at the Victoria, British Columbia, area bank on 28 June 2022 wearing full body armor and carrying semi-automatic rifles. Isaac and Mathew were two-thirds of a set of triplets.

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Colombia announces halt on fossil fuel exploration for a greener economy

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The minister for mines, Irene Vélez, told world leaders the country will shift away from fossil fuels to begin a sustainable chapter

Colombia’s leftwing government has announced that it will not approve any new oil and gas exploration projects as it seeks to shift away from fossil fuels and toward a new sustainable economy.

Irene Vélez, the minister for mines told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the time had come for the Andean nation to move away from its reliance on oil and gas and begin a new, greener chapter in the country’s history.

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Family of Toronto man allegedly killed by teen girls criticizes law keeping identities secret

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Eight have been charged with murder over death of Ken Lee, but none can be identified under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act

The family of the Toronto man allegedly killed by teen girls in a “swarming” attack have denounced “flaws” in the criminal justice system, criticizing the opacity surrounding youth cases involving serious crimes.

Eight teenage girls have been charged with murder over the death of Ken Lee, who was repeatedly stabbed at a plaza near the main rail station in Canada’s largest city in the early hours of 18 December. Three of the girls are 13, three are 14 and two are 16.

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Missing Mexican environmentalists’ families accuse mining company

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Relatives denounce transnational Ternium over case of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and Indigenous leader Antonio Díaz Valencia

Relatives of two missing Mexican environmentalists are pointing the finger at a transnational mining company which they claim is responsible for environmental destruction and violence in the rural community, and may have links to the criminals who abducted their loved ones.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a renowned human rights lawyer, and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in the state of Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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‘We feel betrayed’: Peruvians on anti-government protests

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Peruvians speak up about inequality as President Dina Boluarte declares state of emergency in Lima

Daniel, 32, an indigenous mine worker from the city of Abancay in the southern-central Apurimac province, did not participate in the mass protests that swept over Peru in 2020, after president Martín Vizcarra was ousted.

“But I did take part this time, in my town, to support my people, Indigenous people, who have been treated like garbage for centuries by the ‘elites’.”

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As independent media blossoms in Cuba, journalists face a crackdown

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‘Chilling’ new criminal law penalizing internationally funded journalism comes as repression in the country is on the rise

Since graduating from the University of Havana’s faculty of journalism in 2021, Pedro Sosa, 24, has photographed families of political prisoners and written about the chronic lack of medicine and syringes in Cuba’s fraying medical system.

It was risky work on an island that brooks little dissent, but in September things came to a head: he was interrogated by state security and told that if he didn’t renounce his work for the independent media outlets El Toque (the Touch) and El Estornudo (the Sneeze) he could face jail.

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Peru protesters fight running battles with police after thousands march in Lima

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President Dina Boluarte vows to punish protesters as crowds continue to call for her resignation

A march billed as the “takeover of Lima” escalated into running battles between protesters and riot police amid stone-throwing and swirls of teargas on Thursday evening in Peru’s capital.

Thousands of protesters from across the country poured into Lima earlier in the week to take part in a massive march demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte after nearly six weeks of turmoil that has killed more than 50 people, including one police officer and eight people who died as a result of strikes and blockades.

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