Category Archives: Americas

‘Dom Phillips was natural storyteller – for us, he was always Uncle Dom’

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Nieces of journalist killed in the Amazon pay tribute to their uncle, who sent frequent and funny emails about life in Brazil

Dom Phillips was a storyteller. Through his career as a journalist, he told the stories of those who were unable to speak out and whose views were overlooked. His second book, How to Save the Amazon, aimed to do exactly this – to speak the story of the Amazon and the Indigenous people within it, and provide solutions to preserve their culture in conjunction with current Brazilian society.

For us, however, he was always Uncle Dom. He has been present in our lives since we were born and was very much involved with our upbringing when we were small children. He remained a positive influence, even when he moved to Brazil in 2007.

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Ecuador at standstill after two weeks of protests over cost of living crisis

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During demonstrations, started by an Indigenous federation, roads were blocked and vehicles torched, and police fired teargas

Ecuador has been brought to a near standstill after two weeks of tumultuous protests over a spike in fuel and food prices as global inflation inflames discontent over widening inequality across Latin America.

At least five people have died after demonstrators blocked roads, torched vehicles and hurled stones, while police responded with teargas during several days of clashes. Ecuador’s health ministry has said two people died in ambulances delayed by road blockades. Twelve police officers are reported injured.

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Bruno Pereira buried in his home state after ceremony led by Indigenous tribes

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Funeral held in Pernambuco of Indigenous expert who was killed in Amazon region with journalist Dom Phillips

The murdered Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira has been buried in his home state of Pernambuco in Brazil after a small ceremony attended by family members and local tribes.

Dozens of Indigenous people from the Xukuru tribe paraded around his coffin chanting farewell rituals to the beat of their percussion instruments on Friday.

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Calls for justice amid fears inquiry into killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira stalling

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Three men are in custody and more arrests are planned, but the suspected murder weapon has not been found

Scores of protesters have congregated outside the offices of Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency Funai in the riverside town of Atalaia do Norte, renewing calls for justice over the murders of journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Demonstrators – mostly Indigenous people from the Javari Valley – held orange and yellow banners, which read: “Protection for our Amazon forest”, “Amazon resist! Who ordered the killing?” and “Out Bolsonaro!”, amid growing fears that the criminal investigation into the murders was slowing.

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Haiti: dozens of inmates starve to death as malnutrition crisis engulfs prisons

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Prison in Les Cayes that ran out of food two months ago reports deaths as UN urges government to tackle food and water crisis

At least eight inmates have starved to death at an overcrowded prison in Haiti that ran out of food two months ago, adding to dozens of similar deaths this year as the country’s institutions crumble.

Hunger and oppressive heat contributed to the inmates’ deaths reported this week by the prison in the south-west city of Les Cayes, Ronald Richemond, the city’s government commissioner, said on Thursday. He said the prison houses 833 inmates.

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Inca-era tomb unearthed beneath home in Peru’s capital

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500-year old structure, found in working-class area of Lima, thought to contain remains of society elites

Scientists have unearthed an Inca-era tomb under a home in the heart of Peru’s capital, Lima, a burial believed to hold remains wrapped in cloth alongside ceramics and fine ornaments.

The lead archeologist, Julio Abanto, told Reuters the 500-year-old tomb contained “multiple funerary bundles” tightly wrapped in cloth.

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Ecuador facing food and fuel shortages as country rocked by violent protests

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Government rejects conditions for dialogue to end 10 days of Indigenous-led demonstrations against economic policy

Violent protests against the economic policies of Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso have paralysed the country’s capital and other regions, but the government on Wednesday rejected their conditions for dialogue.

Quito is experiencing food and fuel shortages after 10 days of demonstrations in which protesters at times have clashed with police. After officials rejected the conditions for negotiations, the United States government issued an advisory urging travellers to reconsider visiting the country due to “civil unrest and crime”.

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Dom Phillips was ‘collateral damage’ in drunken ambush, claims Brazil vice-president

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Hamilton Mourão’s claim sparked anger from Indigenous communities who believe organised crime was involved

Brazil’s vice-president has claimed that British journalist Dom Phillips was “collateral damage” in an attack on his travelling partner, the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, as grisly details emerged about the killing of the two men in early June.

One of the three men in custody for the killings said he and his accomplices tried to burn the bodies after shooting them dead at the edge of a river in western Brazil.

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Two Jesuit priests and man seeking sanctuary killed in Mexican church

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Incident occurred in violence-plagued remote mountainous region of Chihuahua, which has strong organized crime presence

Two elderly Jesuit priests have been killed inside a church after a man pursued by gunmen apparently sought refuge in a remote mountainous area of northern Mexico.

Javier Campos Morales, 79, and Joaquín César Mora Salazar, 80, were killed on Monday inside the church in Cerocahui, Chihuahua.

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Two Canadians found dead in Playa del Carmen Mexican beach resort

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The victims, a man and woman, are the latest in a string of several violent incidents in Quintana Roo state

Two Canadians – one of whom was sought by Interpol – have been found dead of knife wounds in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Playa del Carmen, the state prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors in Quintana Roo state, also home to resort towns including Cancún and Tulum, said the man and the woman were found dead on Monday at a hotel or condominium in the troubled resort, and a third person was reported injured.

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Honduras: man who planned Berta Cáceres’s murder jailed for 22 years

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Roberto David Castillo sentenced for role in assassination of Indigenous environmentalist in 2016

A US-trained former Honduran army intelligence officer who was the president of an internationally financed energy company has been sentenced to 22 years and six months for the assassination of the Indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres.

Cáceres, winner of the Goldman prize for environmental defenders, was shot dead by hired hitmen on 2 March 2016, two days before her 45th birthday, after years of threats linked to her opposition of the 22-megawatt Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque River.

Nina Lakhani is author of Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet

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Canada lays out rules banning single-use plastics

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Ban on manufacture and import of six popular types of items will begin in December 2022, and sales a year later

Canada laid out its final regulations on Monday spelling out how it intends to apply a ban on plastic bags, straws, takeout containers and other single-use plastics.

“Only 8% of the plastic we throw away gets recycled,” said federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos in French, adding that 43,000 tonnes of single-use plastics a year find their way into the environment, most notably in waterways.

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Gustavo Petro: first leftist president faces tough challenge in Colombia

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Despite the election euphoria, Petro has a thin mandate and is viewed with suspicion by many

He spent 12 years of his youth in the ranks of an urban guerrilla group, taking the alias of a revolutionary general from Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Later, he would serve as a progressive mayor of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and as a senator. He ran for president unsuccessfully twice, unable to overcome the conservative wall erected nearly two centuries ago around the Colombian presidency.

But on Sunday, Gustavo Petro, 62, was finally able to topple that wall and was elected president, making history as the first leftwing head of state of the South American country.

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MDMA trials under review in Canada over alleged abuse of study participants

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Health Canada confirms reviews into trials following complaint of ‘alleged investigator misconduct’

All clinical trials into the psychoactive drug MDMA are being reviewed by Canadian regulators after complaints about abuse of study participants by a trailblazing American psychedelic research organization.

The California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps) has led the way in conducting trials into the medicinal qualities of the drug. In May 2021, it released results from a phase-three trial in the journal Nature on the benefits of the drug – commonly sold illegally as a powder or within ecstasy tablets – as a breakthrough treatment for PTSD, for which there is currently no effective pharmaceutical treatment.

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Former guerrilla Gustavo Petro wins Colombian election to become first leftist president

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Former fighter in the M-19 militia beat populist business tycoon and fellow political outsider Rodolfo Hernández in runoff on Sunday

Colombia has elected a former guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro as president, making him the South American country’s first leftist head of state.

Petro beat Rodolfo Hernández, a gaff-prone former mayor of Bucaramanga and business mogul, with 50.47% of the vote in a runoff election on Sunday and will take office in July amid a host of challenges, not least of which is the deepening discontent over inequality and rising costs of living. Hernández had 47.27%, with almost all ballots counted, according to results released by election authorities.

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Brazil police identify five more people linked to killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Officers have already arrested three people, one of whom confessed to killing British journalist and indigenous advocate

Police investigating the murder of the British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira have identified five more people connected with the killings, bringing to eight the number of suspects in a crime that has shocked Brazil.

Police had already arrested two brothers, one of whom confessed to the crime, and a third man handed himself in to authorities on Saturday.

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‘Let’s make history’: Colombia could elect first leftist president in runoff

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The election is being contested by mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro and populist business tycoon Rodolfo Hernández

Voters head to the polls in Colombia on Sunday in a historic presidential election that could see the left win for the first time in the conservative South American country.

Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and mayor of Bogotá, will face off against Rodolfo Hernández, a populist business tycoon and the former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga, in a contest where both candidates have cast themselves as political outsiders.

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Brazil police arrest third suspect in killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Jefferson da Silva Lima turned himself in to Amazon police as autopsy finds journalist and indigenous expert were shot

Brazil’s federal police said Saturday that a third suspect in the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira has been arrested. The pair, whose remains were found after they went missing almost two weeks ago, were shot to death, according to an autopsy.

Phillips was shot in the chest and Pereira was shot in the head and the abdomen, police said in a statement. It said the autopsy indicated the use of a “firearm with typical hunting ammunition.”

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Four jailed in Colombia for honeymoon murder of prosecutor

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Gang members given 23-year terms for shooting dead Paraguayan anti-corruption prosecutor Marcelo Pecci

Four people who confessed to taking part in the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was on his honeymoon have each been sentenced to 23 years in jail.

Marcelo Pecci, 45, known for fighting organised crime, was shot dead on the Colombian island of Barú near the Caribbean city of Cartagena on 10 May.

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