Category Archives: Americas

The rumba radio station, the DJ … and 110,000 albums looking for a noisy new home

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The unique Gladys Palmera archive may cross the Atlantic from Madrid to secure a permanent base

On a hillside an hour from Madrid, not far from the sepulchral splendour of the Escorial monastery, with its royal tombs, imperial maps and sacred relics, lies another, rather less austere, treasure house.

The Gladys Palmera collection, kept in a sprawling, tropical-hued complex crammed with 1950s Mexican film posters and prowled by the odd decorative monkey and jaguar, is the largest private archive of Latin American music in the world.

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Freedom convoys: legitimate Covid protest or vehicle for darker beliefs?

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The blockade of Ottawa has sparked copycat action around the globe, and such disparate demonstrations of grievance may prove hard to shut down

It only took six dozen trucks, and a few hundred protesters to bring Canada’s capital to a standstill and close a critical border crossing with the US, throttling the car industry that straddles the line between both countries and relies on a constant flow of trade.

On Saturday, Canadian authorities finally began taking action to clear the Ambassador Bridge into the US, the busiest land crossing in North America, which had been blockaded by just over a dozen trucks and smaller vehicles, and a crowd a few hundred strong.

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US-Canada border standoff dissolves peacefully as police move in

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Many demonstrators drove away from Ambassador Bridge as scores of police approached shortly before dawn

A tense standoff at a US-Canadian border crossing crucial to both countries’ economies appeared to be dissolving peacefully Saturday as Canadian police moved in to disperse the nearly weeklong blockade and demonstrators began leaving without resistance.

Many demonstrators drove away from the Ambassador Bridge spanning the river between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, as scores of police approached shortly after dawn.

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Protesters defy order to clear bridge connecting Canada and US

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Hours after the injunction order to end the blockade, protesters opposing pandemic restrictions stayed at the bridge entrance

Protesters opposing pandemic restrictions were still occupying a vital Canada-US trade corridor hours after an injunction order to end the blockade that has disrupted North America’s auto industry took effect.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau has promised president Joe Biden quick action to end the crisis and earlier on Friday a Canadian judge ordered an end to the four-daylong blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest land border crossing.

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Ontario declares state of emergency, threatening fines and jail time to end blockade

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Court grants an injunction to remove protesters from the bridge between Windsor and Detroit

The province of Ontario has invoked a state of emergency and says it will use the threat of hefty fines, jail time and vehicle licence seizures to end a blockade that has crippled trade between Canada and the United States.

Border traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor to Detroit, has been shut down since Monday as part of a nationwide protest against pandemic restrictions, snarling nearly C$300m (US$235m) of trade each day.

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US urges Canada to end trucker border blockade as mayor says protesters could be removed by force

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Authorities work on alternative travel routes as protest hits auto production and injunction sought to remove Ambassador Bridge demonstrators

The US government has urged Canada to use federal powers to ease the growing economic disruption caused by the blockade of the vital Ambassador Bridge by protesters opposed to coronavirus mandates.

The closure of North America’s busiest international land border crossing, a vital supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to limit economic damage.

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Havana syndrome has ‘dramatically hurt’ morale, US diplomats say

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American Foreign Service Association chief Eric Rubin says syndrome, which remains a mystery, has affected recruitment

The spread of Havana syndrome has “dramatically hurt” morale in the US diplomatic corps and affected recruitment, according to the head of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA).

Eric Rubin, whose association represents nearly 17,000 current and former diplomats and foreign aid workers, said it was getting harder to find young people to work abroad, because of concerns about Havana syndrome – and about whether the government would look after them if they got sick.

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‘Loophole’ allowing for deforestation on soya farms in Brazil’s Amazon

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Satellite data shows rainforest cleared for cattle and maize on farms growing soya, undermining claims crop is deforestation-free

More than 400 sq miles (1,000 sq km) of Amazon rainforest has been felled to expand farms growing soya in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in a 10-year period, despite an agreement to protect it, according to a new investigation.

In 2006, the landmark Amazon soy moratorium was introduced banning the sale of soya grown on land deforested after 2008. From 2004 to 2012, the clearing of trees in the Amazon fell by 84%.

But in recent years deforestation has climbed steeply, reaching a 15-year high last year – encouraged, campaigners say, by President Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-conservationist rhetoric and policies.

With the moratorium applying only to soya, farmers have been able to sell the crop as deforestation-free, while still clearing land for cattle, maize or other commodities.

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Venezuelans despair at smears, stigmatization and arbitrary arrests

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Amnesty International decries ‘systematic policy of repression’ as Maduro clamps down on enemies real and imagined

Juan Carlos Marrufo Capozzi, an electrician and former soldier from Valencia, Venezuela, and his wife María Auxiliadora Delgado Tabosky, were at home when agents from the South American country’s military intelligence unit barged in.

Soldiers with rifles sifted through their paperwork and hard drives, before taking the couple away, leaving Marrufo’s distraught teenage daughter from a previous marriage behind. That was in March 2019, and they haven’t tasted freedom since.

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UN rapporteur ‘appalled’ by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine

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Legal and human rights experts condemn decision to find six activists guilty of crimes against mining company

Six Honduran environmentalists have been found guilty of crimes against a mining company, in a case widely condemned by legal and human rights experts.

The activists, from the small community of Guapinol, have been held in pre-trial detention for two and a half years after opposing an iron oxide mine which has polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people.

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El Salvador woman punished under strict abortion law freed after 10 years

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‘Elsy’ was sentenced to 30 years for aggravated homicide over miscarriage and is fifth such woman to be released since December

El Salvador has released another woman imprisoned for aggravated homicide who after suffering an obstetric emergency was accused of aborting her pregnancy in a country where abortion under any circumstances is banned.

The woman, who activists helping her identified only as Elsy, had served more than a decade of a 30-year sentence. She was the fifth woman released before completion of her sentence since late December of last year.

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US-Canada bridge blockade risks huge economic damage, governments warn

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While protest remains on bridge between car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor, businesses risk losing $50m a day

Blockades on the busiest border bridge between Canada and the US could have a serious impact on the economies of both countries, disrupting the automotive industry, agricultural exports, and causing multimillion-dollar losses, the two countries’ governments have said.

The warnings came as business associations said that manufacturing plants at the heart of North America’s automotive industry face potential shortages, shutdowns, layoffs as “freedom convoy” protesters continue to block traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, between the car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor.

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Arrests in Ottawa as Canadian truckers block main bridge to US

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Police detain 23 in Ottawa protests over Covid restrictions, while trucks block Ambassador Bridge linking cities of Detroit and Windsor

Traffic has ground to a halt at the busiest border crossing in North America, as Canadian truckers and others angry with vaccine mandates spread their protest beyond Ottawa.

Trucks started blocking the Ambassador Bridge linking the cities of Detroit and Windsor late on Monday, closing down traffic in both directions. On Tuesday, entry to Canada remained blocked while US-bound traffic slowed to a crawl. Each day, 8,000 trucks normally cross the bridge, which handles about 27% of trade between Canada and the US. Protesters also targeted another major border crossing in Coutts, Alberta.

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5G and QAnon: how conspiracy theorists steered Canada’s anti-vaccine trucker protest

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Ottawa’s occupation was a result of unrivaled coordination between anti-vax and anti-government organizations

Thousands of demonstrators have successfully occupied Canada’s frigid capital for days, and say they plan on staying as long as it takes to thwart the country’s vaccine requirements.

The brazen occupation of Ottawa came as a result of unprecedented coordination between various anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations and activists, and has been seized on by similar groups around the world.

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Ottawa protesters turn to Christian crowdfunding site after GoFundMe snub

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GoFundMe blocked fundraising after Canadian city declared emergency over protests against vaccine mandates

A trucker-led protest against vaccine mandates in Canada has raised several million dollars on a Christian crowdfunding site after being removed from GoFundMe, sparking debate over how online platforms moderate campaigns.

GoFundMe blocked fundraising for the “Freedom Convoy” over the weekend, after the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency over a week-long protest led by truck drivers over Covid-19 restrictions.

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Infant killed after coast guard opens fire on boat carrying Venezuelan migrants

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The baby’s mother was injured after the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard shot at the boat, later saying it fired in ‘self defence’

A Venezuelan woman was shot and wounded and her nine-month-old baby was killed in her arms when Trinidad and Tobago’s coast guard opened fire on the boat carrying migrants fleeing their home country.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the coast guard said its personnel had opened fire “in self-defence” on Saturday after “aggressive manoeuvres” by the migrant craft when it was intercepted as it entered Trinidadian waters late on Saturday.

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Ottawa protesters defy growing calls to end occupation of capital

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Protesters against Covid vaccine mandates have defied government calls for them to end a 10-day occupation of Canada’s capital, a day after the city’s mayor declared a state of emergency and promised to “get the city back”.

Ottawa police have described the protest as a “siege” on the city, where hundreds of trucks and cars have blockaded the downtown areas. On Sunday, Mayor Jim Watson warned that officials were “losing this battle”, and a civil class-action lawsuit was filed against protesters over the incessant horn blasting and disruption to daily life.

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Signs of premature ageing found in monkeys after hurricane

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Rhesus macaques in Puerto Rico appear to have aged by about two years more than expected

Monkeys that survived a devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico were prematurely aged by the experience, a study has found.

Scientists say the findings suggest that an increase in extreme weather around the world may have negative biological consequences for the humans and animals affected.

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Ottawa protests: how did the rallies against vaccine mandates begin and what’s next?

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Protesters occupying Canada’s capital city say they will not leave until all vaccine requirements and mandates have been abolished

For more than a week, the centre of Canada’s capital city has been paralysed by protestors who have blockaded the downtown area with trucks and cars. City police have described the protest as a “siege” and on Sunday the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency.

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Ottawa declares state of emergency as Canada trucker protest paralyses city

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Police chief describes situation as a ‘siege’ as thousands of protesters join demonstrations against Covid restrictions

The mayor of Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday and a former US ambassador to Canada said groups in the US must stop interfering in the domestic affairs of America’s neighbour as protesters opposed to Covid-19 restrictions continued to paralyse Ottawa’s downtown.

The mayor, Jim Watson, said the declaration highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government. It gives the city some additional powers around procurement and how it delivers services, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders.

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