Category Archives: Americas

Bolsonaro faces stiff questioning over Brazilian army’s Viagra purchase

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Navy and air force – which reportedly bought over 30,000 pills – claim drug is being used to treat pulmonary hypertension

Opponents of the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, are demanding answers after the revelation that the country’s armed forces had splashed out on tens of thousands of impotence pills.

“We must understand why the Bolsonaro administration is spending public money on buying such large quantities of Viagra,” the lawmaker Elias Vaz declared after Brazilian media reported the seemingly unorthodox acquisitions on Monday.

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‘Hurricane Hazel’: Canada political icon, 101, still flying high as airport director

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Hazel McCallion retired as mayor of Mississauga after 36 years in 2014 but the ‘pragmatic populist’ has shown little sign of easing up

When Hazel McCallion retired in 2014 as the mayor of the Canadian city of Mississauga, she was 93.

But while most people her age typically retreat from the spotlight of public life, “Hurricane Hazel” has shown little interest in slowing down. At 101, she recently accepted an offer to extend her role as a director for the greater Toronto airport authority, a contract that will last three years.

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Former Colombia player Freddy Rincón in critical condition after car crash

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  • Rincón was driving car that collided with bus in Cali
  • Hospital treating 55-year-old for ‘traumatic brain injury’

Freddy Rincón, the former Colombia captain, is in a critical condition with severe head injuries after being involved in a car crash in the city of Cali.

Four other people who were in the vehicle that Rincon was driving were also injured following the collision with a bus at around 4.30am. The bus driver was also hurt, according to local authorities who are reviewing CCTV footage of the accident.

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Chile announces unprecedented plan to ration water as drought enters 13th year

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Rivers that supply Santiago with water are running low, forcing rotating cuts to different parts of the city

As a punishing, record-breaking drought enters its 13th year, Chile has announced an unprecedented plan to ration water for the capital of Santiago, a city of nearly 6 million.

“A city can’t live without water,” Claudio Orrego, the governor of the Santiago metropolitan region, said in a press conference. “And we’re in an unprecedented situation in Santiago’s 491-year history where we have to prepare for there to not be enough water for everyone who lives here.”

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Mexico president López Obrador wins recall referendum amid low turnout

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Nine in 10 voters back leader to stay in office in poll viewed as foregone conclusion by critics and supporters

Nine in 10 Mexicans voting in an unprecedented recall election engineered by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have backed him to stay in office, underlining his domination of a polarised political agenda.

Critics and supporters had viewed his victory as a foregone conclusion in a ballot that had fed speculation it could open the door to extending presidential term limits, now limited to a single six-year period.

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Canada bans foreign homebuyers for two years in effort to cool market

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Government under pressure after prices climbed by more than 20% last year, while rental rates have also been rising

Justin Trudeau’s government has announced it will ban foreign investors from buying homes in Canada for two years, in a bid to cool off a hot housing market.

The finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, took a number of measures to tamp down speculation and demand amid record home prices in announcing the federal budget for the year.

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Stay or go? Mexicans vote on Amlo’s performance in historic recall election

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Despite Covid deaths and enduring drug violence, voters look poised to keep president in office in referendum he supports

Maria de Lourdes loves her leader and is desperate for him to stay.

“He’s the best president we’ve had in 70 years,” the retiree enthused this week as she prepared to bombard her phone contacts with calls urging them to back him on Sunday, when Mexico goes to the polls.

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DHL cargo plane splits in two after crash landing at Costa Rica airport

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Mechanical failure prompted pilot to request emergency landing shortly after plane took off from Juan Santamaria airport

A Boeing 757-200 cargo aircraft operated by DHL has made a dramatic emergency landing at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria international airport, skidded off the runway and broke in two, losing its tail.

DHL, part of Deutsche Post AG, said the crew was unharmed and that one member was undergoing a medical review as a precaution.

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Peruvian prime minister’s praise of Hitler sparks wave of protest

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Aníbal Torres said his words were misunderstood but offered to apologize in person to Israeli ambassador Asaf Ichilevich

The Israeli embassy in Lima has led a wave of protest after Peru’s prime minister Aníbal Torres praised Adolf Hitler, on the grounds that the fascist dictator turned Germany into the “first economic power in the world”.

In a week in which the government of Pedro Castillo has been engulfed in a political crisis caused by rising fuel and fertiliser prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and the president’s own blundering efforts to calm the unrest – Torres’ inopportune remark on Thursday drew opprobrium from all quarters.

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Brazil military ‘posed as NGOs on social media’ to play down deforestation

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Facebook owner Meta removes network from social media in move which could damage President Jair Bolsonaro

Facebook owner Meta Platforms has removed a network of social media accounts with ties to the Brazilian military that posed as fake non-profits to play down the dangers of deforestation.

The comments by Meta, published in a quarterly report, pose a reputational risk to Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro. The far-right former army captain is a longtime sceptic of environmentalism.

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Puerto Rico power outage plunges over 1 million into darkness

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Fire at a main power plant causes biggest blackout so far this year on island, forcing it to cancel classes and close government offices

More than 1 million customers in Puerto Rico remained without electricity on Thursday after a fire at a main power plant caused the biggest blackout so far this year across the US territory, forcing it to cancel classes and shutter government offices.

The blackout also left some 160,000 customers without water and snarled traffic across the island of 3.2 million people, where the roar of generators and smell of diesel filled the air.

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Thieving sea lions break into salmon farm and gorge on feast of fish

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Conservationists say the farms are a danger to sea lions and other marine mammals, who can become entangled in their nets

Dozens of thieving sea lions in western Canada have spent the last few weeks gorging on fish after brazenly slipping into an industrial salmon farm – and ignoring all attempts to make them move on.

Cermaq, the aquaculture giant with operations in Norway, Chile and Canada, says the wily predators were able to evade netting and electric fences in late March as part of a “breach event” at the Rant Point farm near Tofino in British Columbia.

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El Salvador press cries censorship as anti-gang law targets media

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El Salvador’s congress has authorised sentences of 10-15 years for media spreading gangs’ messages

El Salvador’s congress has authorised prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from gangs, prompting accusations of censorship from press freedom groups.

The vote late on Tuesday was the latest in a flurry of legislative action against the gangs after 62 suspected gang killings on 26 March led President Nayib Bukele to seek and win a state of emergency. Harsh measures against imprisoned gang members and increased prison sentences followed, as well as the arrests of some 6,000 people accused of being gang members.

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Peru president at bay as fuel and fertiliser prices detonate political crisis

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Pedro Castillo lifted a curfew in Lima but is still facing calls to resign after a rash of bad decisions and allegations of corruption

Peru’s beleaguered president, Pedro Castillo, is at the centre of a spiralling political crisis caused by rising fuel and fertiliser prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and his own heavy-handed efforts to quell the unrest.

On Tuesday Castillo lifted a curfew in Lima that he had decreed less than a day earlier in an attempt to quell sometimes violent protests over rising fuel and food prices. But the move came too late to defuse public anger.

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Ancient cemetery of flying reptiles unearthed in Chile’s Atacama desert

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Scientists say remains belong to pterosaurs, who lived alongside dinosaurs more than 100m years ago

Scientists in Chile have unearthed a rare cemetery with well-preserved bones of ancient flying reptiles that roamed the Atacama desert more than 100m years ago.

The remains belong to pterosaurs, scientists determined, flying creatures that lived alongside dinosaurs and had a long wingspan and fed by filtering water through long, thin teeth, similar to flamingos.

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Maradona’s shirt from ‘hand of God’ England match expected to sell for £4m

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Former England midfielder Steve Hodge has owned Maradona’s no 10 shirt since the 1986 match

Diego Maradona’s infamous “hand of God” goal made footballing history and cemented the legendary status of the Argentinian superstar. Now the shirt he wore when he scored that goal at the 1986 World Cup is estimated to sell for at least £4m.

Maradona’s no 10 shirt has been owned for the past 35 years by the former England midfielder Steve Hodge. The two players swapped shirts at the end of the quarter-final between Argentina and England.

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Attacks on press in Mexico hit record level during López Obrador’s presidency

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Report paints bleak picture of journalist safety under leader who often criticises media and downplays violence against reporters

Attacks against the press in Mexico have increased by 85% since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office, making it the most deadly period for journalists since records began, according to a new report.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists with 1,945 attacks – including 33 murders – between 2019 and 2021, according to the press freedom group Article 19. Another eight have been killed so far this year.

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Fuel protests prompt Lima curfew as Ukraine crisis touches South America

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Peru’s embattled president takes drastic step as fertiliser and fuel prices soar and Brazil seeks to open Indigenous territory to mining

Peru’s embattled president Pedro Castillo has banned residents of the capital, Lima, from leaving their homes in an attempt to quell nationwide protests over soaring fuel and fertiliser prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a televised address just before midnight on Monday, Castillo announced a curfew from 2am until 11.59pm on Tuesday, claiming the measure would “protect the fundamental rights of all people”.

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El Salvador reels as 6,000 people arrested in unprecedented crackdown

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Authoritarian populist president Nayib Bukele has suspended rights in state of emergency justified as attack on MS13 gang

Distraught families across El Salvador are searching for information on the fate of their loved ones after almost 6,000 people were arrested in an unprecedented security crackdown over the past week.

Men, women and children have been rounded up across the Central American country since the government declared a state of emergency on 27 March, suspending constitutional rights including the presumption of innocence.

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Victims of Brazil’s Mariana dam disaster seek compensation through UK courts

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In one of the largest claims in English legal history, 200,000 people affected by the 2015 incident will have their case heard this week

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster are seeking compensation in a UK court this week, in one of the largest group claims in English legal history.

The claimants, including representatives of Krenak indigenous communities, are fighting to get compensation for the devastation caused by the Mariana dam disaster in November 2015. The £5bn lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP.

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