Category Archives: Americas

Brazilian police say ‘no evidence of crime’ in search for missing journalist

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Police detain man on drugs and weapons charges but say too early to link arrest directly to disappearance in Amazon of Dom Phillips

Authorities in the Amazon investigating the disappearance of a British journalist and an Indigenous advocate have yet to find any evidence of a crime three days after the men went missing in a remote corner of the rainforest.

Police in the far west of Brazil said on Wednesday their inquiries into the disappearance of Dom Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, an advocate for Indigenous people, had led to the arrest of one man.

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Dozens tumble as Mexican footbridge collapses during opening ceremony

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Mayor of Cuernavaca was inaugurating structure when it gave way, injuring eight people, many with broken bones

The mayor of the Mexican city of Cuernavaca was proudly inaugurating a footbridge over a scenic stream on Tuesday when the bridge collapsed, sending him and about two dozen other people plunging into a gully.

The hanging bridge made of wooden boards and metal chains had recently been remodeled. Video of the collapse suggested the boards separated from the chains supporting them.

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John Kerry commits to look into case of missing British journalist in Brazil

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Dom Phillips, a Guardian contributor, was last seen on Sunday morning travelling with Indigenous expert Bruno Araújo Pereira

The US climate envoy John Kerry has committed to pursuing the facts behind the disappearance of a veteran Guardian contributor and a celebrated Indigenous expert in the Brazilian Amazon.

Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira were last seen on Sunday morning travelling by boat through the remote Javari Valley, a region plagued by violence involving illegal fishermen, illegal loggers, drug traffickers and security forces.

Kerry, a former US secretary of state, appears shocked at details of the case recounted by the Brazilian Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara in a WhatsApp video of the encounter seen by the Guardian.

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Missing British journalist’s wife pleads with Brazil to find ‘love of my life’

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Alessandra Sampaio, whose husband Dom Phillips was last seen in the Amazon on Sunday, makes appeal in tearful video message

The wife of the British journalist who has vanished in a remote corner of the Amazon with a celebrated Indigenous expert has issued an emotional plea for Brazilian authorities to work harder to find “the love of my life”.

“I want to make an appeal to the federal government and the relevant organs to intensify their search efforts, because we still have some hope of finding them,” Alessandra Sampaio, the wife of longtime Guardian contributor Dom Phillips, said in a tearful video message.

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China accuses Australia and Canada of ‘disinformation’ over jet encounters

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Beijing warns Australia of ‘serious consequences’ if it does not stop ‘provocations’ after incident Canberra called ‘very dangerous’

Beijing has accused Australia and Canada of “spreading disinformation” over allegedly dangerous manoeuvres by Chinese military pilots in international airspace.

China also warned Australia to stop “provocations” or face “serious consequences” after the Albanese government said a Chinese jet intercepted an RAAF plane in a dangerous manoeuvre in late May.

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‘Every second counts’: wife of British journalist missing in Amazon urges action

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Alessandra Sampaio, wife of Dom Phillips, tells Brazilian authorities: ‘Please answer the urgency of the moment with urgent actions’

The wife of a British journalist who has gone missing in a remote corner of the Brazilian Amazon notorious for illegal mining and drug trafficking has urged authorities to intensify their search efforts.

Dom Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, vanished on Sunday morning while journeying by boat through the Javari region of Amazonas state where he was reporting for a book he is writing about conservation.

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Trudeau calls China’s close encounter with Canadian warplanes ‘provocative’

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Canadian planes enforcing UN North Korea sanctions had to avoid colliding with Chinese jets in encounter in international airspace

Justin Trudeau has denounced Beijing’s “irresponsible and provocative” actions after a recent encounter in international airspace over Asia.

The incident, in which Canadian aircraft deployed in Japan encountered, and in some cases had to avoid colliding with, Chinese jets, has again raised tensions between Beijing and Ottawa, just as the crisis over Canada’s 2018 arrest of the Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, began to subside.

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Dominican Republic environment minister shot dead in his office

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Officials say Orlando Jorge Mera, founder member of Modern Revolutionary party, shot and killed by close friend

The Dominican Republic’s minister of the environment and natural resources has been shot and killed in his officeby a close friend, the office of the president said in a statement on Monday.

Authorities said Orlando Jorge Mera was shot by Miguel Cruz, who has been detained. No further details were immediately available.

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Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard convicted of violent rape

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While jury deliberated in Toronto, news broke that the Canadian rock musician had been charged with another sexual assault

  • This story contains descriptions of sexual assault

The Canadian rock musician Jacob Hoggard has been found guilty of violently raping a young woman, but acquitted of sexually assaulting a second – all while facing a new, third charge of sexual assault.

After a month-long trial and six days of deliberation, a Toronto jury handed down its verdict on Sunday evening in a court case that heard testimony from both victims recounting their alleged violent encounters with Hoggard, the former frontman of the Canadian rock band Hedley.

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Fears for safety of British journalist missing in Brazilian Amazon

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Dom Phillips disappeared on a trip to one of the remotest corners of the Amazon days after receiving threats

Fears are growing over the safety of a British journalist and a Brazilian Indigenous expert who have disappeared in one of the remotest corners of the Amazon just days after receiving threats.

Dom Phillips, a longtime contributor to the Guardian in Brazil, was last seen over the weekend in the Javari region of Amazonas state – a vast region of rivers and rainforests near the border with Peru.

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Up to 15,000 people expected to walk length of Mexico in giant caravan to US

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Largest ever migrant caravan, huddled together for protection, moves north as global leaders gather for Biden’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles

Liozanys Comeja credits her survival to her teacup chihuahua, Mia. Originally from Venezuela, Comeja moved to Colombia five years ago, but decided to leave her new life behind this month due to the rising cost of living. She crossed the Darien Gap, a notorious stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama, with Mia tucked in her backpack, eventually making her way across eight countries. Now, Comeja is hoping the dog will help her make it through the grueling final leg of their journey.

Comeja has joined about 11,000 others who on Monday will leave Tapachula, a sweltering city on the Mexico-Guatemala border, and head north for the United States. It will depart as leaders from across the hemisphere gather in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas.

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‘Disgusting’ behaviour at Canadian police undercover training course sparks inquiry

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The British Columbia program was abruptly shut down and nine officers are reportedly under investigation after the incident

Policing experts in Canada have called for an overhaul of undercover tactics after reports that officers at a training session participated in “disgusting, appalling” behaviour, including penetrating a colleague using a vegetable, defecating on another and exposing genitalia.

According to Global News and CTV, the BC Municipal Undercover Program was abruptly shut down after the workshop in May, which included a role-playing exercise in which some participants went to “extreme lengths” to prove they were not officers.

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Mexico police arrest alleged serial killer who lured women with job offers

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At least seven young women believed to have been killed after responding to ads on Facebook

Authorities in Mexico have arrested a suspected serial killer accused of luring at least seven young women on Facebook with false job offers.

Surveillance camera footage from two states showed the man meeting with the victims in public places, and in one case driving a victim away on a motorbike, officials said.

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El Salvador accused of ‘massive’ human rights violations with 2% of adults in prison

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More than 36,000 people arrested in just over two months in crackdown orchestrated by President Nayib Bukele

Amnesty International has accused El Salvador’s government of committing “massive human rights violations” during an extraordinary security crackdown that has seen more than 36,000 people arrested in just over two months.

The clampdown was orchestrated by the Central American country’s authoritarian-minded president, Nayib Bukele, in late March after a sudden eruption of bloodshed that saw 87 murders in a single weekend.

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Digital mapping reveals network of settlements thrived in pre-Columbian Amazon

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Ruins of monuments, villages, causeways and canals hidden in the dense rainforest are evidence of ‘Amazonian urbanism’

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a vast network of settlements hidden beneath the undergrowth of the Bolivian Amazon, in what has been described as the clearest example yet of the complex societies that thrived in a region once held to be pristine wilderness.

The system of monumental centres, towns and villages spans hundreds, if not thousands, of square kilometres of the Llanos de Mojos region, a tropical savannah in the Amazonian basin.

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Women in Canada’s military face greater harm from comrades than enemy, says judge

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Leadership ‘incapable of examining which aspects of its culture have been the most deficient,’ writes Louise Arbour in report

Some members of the Canadian military face greater harm from their comrades than from the enemy, according to a new report on sexual violence in the Canadian armed forces (CAF).

Called the Arbour report after its author, the former supreme court justice Louise Arbour, the 404-page document pinpoints the many failures of the CAF over the years to address misogyny, discrimination, sexual violence and trauma experienced predominantly by female members of the military.

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Cali cartel boss Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela dies in US prison

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Rodríguez Orejuela, 83, was a rival of Pablo Escobar and controlled 80% of the global cocaine market

Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, an elderly leader of the Cali cartel – and bitter rival of Pablo Escobar – has died in a US prison, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Sometimes known by his alias ‘The Chessplayer,’ Rodríguez Orejuela, 83, helped lead the Cali cartel, which once controlled 80% of the global cocaine market, according to a report from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

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White Canadian man found guilty of murder of two Indigenous hunters

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Jury finds Anthony Bilodeau and his father guilty in the deaths of Maurice Cardinal and his nephew, Jacob Sansom, who were Métis

A white man who shot and killed two Indigenous hunters on a country road in the Canadian province of Alberta has been found guilty of murder and manslaughter in a case that laid bare racial tensions in the region. The man’s father was also found guilty of two counts of manslaughter.

Anthony Bilodeau, 33, and his father, Roger Bilodeau, 58, were charged in the deaths of Maurice Cardinal, 57, and his nephew, Jacob Sansom, 39, on a March 2020 evening. After deliberating for less than a day, an Edmonton jury found both men guilty late on Tuesday.

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Canada to decriminalize some drugs in British Columbia for three years

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Policy aims to stem record number of overdose deaths by easing a fear of arrest by those who need help

Canada’s government has announced that it will allow the province of British Colombia to try a three-year experiment in decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs, hoping it will help stem a record number of overdose deaths by easing a fear of arrest by those who need help.

The policy approved by federal officials doesn’t legalize the substances, but Canadians in the Pacific coast province who possess up to 2.5g of illicit drugs for personal use will not be arrested or charged.

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Deaths amid flooding and mudslides as Hurricane Agatha hits Mexico

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Oaxaca state counts cost of strongest hurricane ever to come ashore in May during eastern Pacific hurricane season

Hurricane Agatha caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 10 people and left 20 missing, the governor of the southern state of Oaxaca said on Tuesday.

Alejando Murat said rivers overflowed their banks and swept away people in homes, while other victims were buried under mud and rocks.

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