Category Archives: Americas

Regulating indigenous medicine in Mexico ‘could violate rights’

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Academics and traditional medical groups warn against proposed legislation to grant state authority to control practice

Proposed legislation that would grant the Mexican state authority to regulate and control the practice of indigenous medicine could violate the country’s constitution and international conventions on the rights of ancestral communities, academics and traditional medical groups have warned.

The bill, introduced by the governing Morena party and unanimously voted through by the lower house in April, sets out to regulate and standardise traditional and complementary healthcare.

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‘Nothing will change’: void left by Colombia cartel boss will quickly be filled, say experts

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The capture of Ontoniel has been called a landmark victory against the drug trade. But he is ‘just one node of a network’

Colombia’s most wanted drug lord is behind bars awaiting extradition to the US, after what the country’s president hailed as the biggest blow against the drug trade in 20 years.

Until his capture at the weekend, Dairo Antonio Úsuga – better known as Otoniel – headed Colombia’s feared Clan del Golfo cartel, a criminal empire that oversees the production and smuggling of unknown tons of cocaine, as well as extortion rackets, illegal mining operations and arms smuggling.

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Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are people too, US court rules

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Recognition as ‘interested persons’ is a legal first in the US, allowing animals to have their interests heard in court

The offspring of hippos once owned by Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar can be recognized as people or “interested persons” with legal rights in the US following a federal court order.

The case involves a lawsuit against the Colombian government over whether to kill or sterilize the hippos, whose numbers are growing at a fast pace and pose a threat to biodiversity.

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Rightwing Chilean newspaper accused of ‘apology for Nazism’ over Göring article

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Germany embassy condemns El Mercurio for Sunday piece and says ‘no room to justify or minimise his horrific role’

Chile’s main conservative daily newspaper has been accused of publishing “an apology for Nazism” after running an illustrated article commemorating the life of the German war criminal Hermann Göring.

After El Mercurio published the article on Sunday, the German embassy in Santiago expressed its concern, highlighting Göring’s many crimes.

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Canada container ship fire: ‘bomb cyclone’ storm may hinder effort to assess damage

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Blaze on freighter ship has been largely contained, but officials won’t be able to determine damage amid wind and rain

Emergency crews have largely contained a chemical fire aboard a container ship anchored off western Canada, but warned a looming “bomb cyclone” storm could complicate efforts to fully assess damage to the ship and surrounding marine ecosystem.

The blaze broke out on Saturday aboard the MV Zim Kingston, a freighter ship carrying mining chemicals, including potassium amylxanthate – a hazardous substance used to help separate ores.

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Herbalist’s murder highlights assault on Mayan spirituality in Guatemala

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Spiritual guide Domingo Choc Che was tortured and burned by neighbors who accused him of witchcraft – and advocates say Christian churches are stoking prejudice

In meetings, Domingo Choc Che was quiet and reflective, speaking up only once others had said their piece. But he would come alive when he entered the jungles of Guatemala’s northern Petén department, sharing his knowledge of traditional medicines with anyone who wanted to learn.

“He was more at ease with plants,” said Mónica Berger, a sociologist and anthropologist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala who worked closely with Choc Che, a member of the indigenous Maya Q’eqchi community.

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Colombia’s president hails capture of cartel boss Dairo Antonio Úsuga

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Úsuga, one of South America’s most wanted men, arrested at rainforest hideout after massive manhunt

Colombia’s president, Iván Duque, has celebrated the downfall of “the most feared drug trafficker on Earth” after one of South America’s most wanted men was captured at his rainforest hideout following a massive manhunt involving hundreds of troops as well as US and British intelligence agencies.

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, the 50-year-old head of the Clan del Golfo drug cartel, was arrested on Saturday afternoon after heavily armed operatives laid siege to the criminal’s jungle stomping ground in north-west Colombia.

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‘It still gives me nightmares’: the firefighters on the frontline as the world burns

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As global heating sees a surge in wildfires, we hear from those tackling the blazes, who face injury, death and trauma, often without proper equipment or support

In Greece, fires take up a lot of resources. There isn’t enough money to recruit the number of [firefighters] needed or to buy the necessary equipment. Volunteers plug the gaps.

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Sprinter Alex Quiñónez, 2019 world bronze medallist, shot dead in Ecuador

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  • Quiñónez, 32, reportedly killed outside a shopping centre
  • Country’s president pledges to ‘act forcefully’ in response

Sprinter Alex Quiñónez has been killed in his home country of Ecuador. The 32-year-old, who finished third in the 200m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha two years ago, was reportedly shot dead outside a shopping centre in the port city of Guayaquil on Friday night, along with another unnamed person.

The Ecuadorian sports ministry announced the news in a statement on its Twitter feed, saying: “Today we lost a great athlete, a person who made us dream, who made us excited. The National Police are at the scene and the authorities are conducting the corresponding investigations. He will forever remain in the hearts of all Ecuadorians.

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‘We know who we are’: Inuit row raises questions over identity and ancestry

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Under Canada’s constitution, Indigenous groups have the right to self-govern – but there are fears that the recognition of NunatuKavut could weaken the authority of Inuit groups

For centuries, Inuit in Canada have thrived in the sprawling territory known as Inuit Nunangat – the homeland – which stretches from a thin sliver of land in the Yukon territory to northern Labrador, a vast domain more than 3.3m sq km (1.2m sq miles) in size.

“Inuit have long understood where our communities are, who belongs to our communities, and have fought over the last 50 years to create modern treaties that identify these specific homelands,” said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a group that represents the four main Inuit regions.

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Columbia’s most-wanted drug lord, Otoniel, captured by armed forces

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The leader of the powerful Clan del Golfo, who had a $5m bounty on his head, was seized in a raid by military and police

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, known as Otoniel, Colombia’s most sought after drug trafficker and leader of the Clan del Golfo, has been captured at his jungle hideout by the country’s armed forces.

Colombia had offered a reward of up to 3bn pesos (about $800,000) for information concerning Otoniel’s whereabouts, while the United States government had put up a reward of $5m for help locating him.

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Californian blogger among two tourists killed in shootout at Mexico’s Tulum

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The two women killed and three tourists injured were believed to have been caught in crossfire of clash between drug gangs

A Californian travel blogger was one of two foreign tourists killed at a restaurant in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resort of Tulum during a shootout between suspected gang members.

The two women killed were identified as Anjali Ryot, an Indian national who lived in San Jose, and German national Jennifer Henzold, though no hometown was immediately available for her. Two German men and a Dutch woman were also injured during the shootout late on Wednesday, the district attorney’s office in Quintana Roo state said.

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‘I was terrified’: the vet sterilizing Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos

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The progeny of animals brought illegally to Colombia and kept in the drug lord’s private zoo must now be put on birth control

When Gina Paola Serna studied to become a biologist and veterinarian in Colombia, she never expected to one day be tasked with neutering an invasive herd of hippos that once belonged to Pablo Escobar.

When they were smuggled into the drug lord’s private zoo in the 1980s, there were just four hippos. But in the 26 years since Escobar’s death, their numbers have steadily grown : the herd now includes about 80 animals – threatening to disrupt ecosystems in Colombia. So now, Serna spends her days tracking and sterilizing the hulking riverine mammals.

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Aid to Haiti sent by sea to bypass rising gang violence, UN food agency says

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World Food Programme scrambles to provide relief through air and sea to earthquake victims as local violence soars

The World Food Programme (WFP) is now using seafaring barges to ship supplies to earthquake victims in southern Haiti, after escalating gang violence made overland journeys unsafe for aid convoys.

Since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southern peninsula in August, thousands of survivors have been sporadically cut off from Port-au-Prince, the capital, by roadblocks set up by warring gangs, leading relief workers to employ novel workarounds, including shifting aid to barges and helicopter airlifts.

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Top Saskatchewan health official moved to tears by unchecked Covid spread

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Dr Saqib Shahab, the Canadian province’s chief medical officer, spoke of grief and frustration at deaths despite vaccine availability

A senior health official in western Canada has made an emotional plea for people to get vaccinated against coronavirus and observe social distancing recommendations, highlighting the grief and frustration felt by health workers in a country where Covid deaths continue despite the availability of vaccines.

Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer, Dr Saqib Shahab, was brought to tears during a briefing on Wednesday, as he presented new data showing the continuing pressure on the province’s hospitals and intensive care units.

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Global heating ‘may lead to epidemic of kidney disease’

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Deadly side-effect of heat stress is threat to rising numbers of workers in hot climates, doctors warn

Chronic kidney disease linked to heat stress could become a major health epidemic for millions of workers around the world as global temperatures increase over the coming decades, doctors have warned.

More research into the links between heat and CKDu – chronic kidney disease of uncertain cause – is urgently needed to assess the potential scale of the problem, they have said.

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‘You shouldn’t work if your kidneys are failing – but people can’t afford not to’

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Global heating is having a deadly impact on Nicaragua’s sugar cane workers, who toil in temperatures of up to 45C

At the Sacuanjoche clinic in Chinandega, the largest city in Nicaragua’s sugar cane-growing region, nephrologist Nelson Garcia does the rounds of his patients. Many are suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD); most fell ill while working long hours under the beating sun in the nearby sugar cane fields, and now have damaged and failing kidneys.

“People arrive with a host of symptoms here; some are really nauseous, or vomiting, or have severe diarrhoea,” Garcia says, adding that although unsure exactly how many people he has treated for heat stress and related kidney diseases this year, he knows it is a lot. “Others are physically weakened, tired, or have nasty muscular cramps, while others complain about having no appetite or libido – there really are so many symptoms.”

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Solar storm confirms Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago

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Analysis of wood from timber-framed buildings in Newfoundland shows Norse-built settlement 471 years before Columbus

Long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, eight timber-framed buildings covered in sod stood on a terrace above a peat bog and stream at the northern tip of Canada’s island of Newfoundland, evidence that the Vikings had reached the New World first.

But precisely when the Vikings journeyed to establish the L’Anse aux Meadows settlement had remained unclear – until now.

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Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity, Covid inquiry finds

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Brazilian president savaged for ‘macabre’ and ‘slovenly’ response to pandemic and ‘deliberate neglect’ of indigenous people

Jair Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity and jailed for his “macabre” reaction to a Covid outbreak that has killed more than 600,000 Brazilians, including a disproportionate number of indigenous citizens, a congressional inquiry has found.

Two of the most dramatic accusations against the Brazilian president – murder and genocide of the country’s indigenous populations – were removed from a previous draft of the report on Tuesday night after talks between opposition senators serving on the inquiry.

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