Category Archives: Americas

‘Bad faith’ US prosecutors misled Canada in Huawei case, court hears in final arguments

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Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou, whose detention has thrown US-China feud into focus, urge judge to throw out extradition request

Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou say American prosecutors acted in “bad faith” and abused the Canadian justice system when they pursued the Huawei chief financial officer, in final arguments of the telecoms executive’s closely watched extradition proceedings.

In a Vancouver courtroom on Wednesday, Meng’s legal team argued that American prosecutors misled the Canadian justice system in their legal summary of the allegations against Meng. Her team says this abuse of process obliges the judge overseeing the case to toss out the extradition request against Meng and set her free.

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Nicaragua: Ortega opponent becomes eighth election candidate to be arrested

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Crackdown continues as vice-presidential hopeful Berenice Quezada accused of ‘terrorism’ for criticising lack of freedom

Nicaraguan authorities have detained a candidate in the November presidential elections, her party has said, as the government of President Daniel Ortega shows no sign of ending a sweeping crackdown against the opposition.

For months Ortega’s government has been detaining political adversaries, including presidential hopefuls, ahead of an election in which the former Marxist guerrilla and cold war antagonist of Washington will be running for a fourth consecutive term.

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Colombian top general Mario Montoya faces murder charges in ‘false positives’ scandal

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Uribe’s ‘hero of the homeland’ is alleged to have overseen the abduction and execution of up to 104 civilians – including five children

Gen Mario Montoya was the star soldier who oversaw the defeat of Latin America’s most powerful insurgency, a US-trained professional hailed for turning around a demoralized army and masterminding a string of brutal strikes against Colombia’s leftist guerrillas.

After taking command of the South American country’s army in 2006, he regularly appeared on television news, the face of a modern military who even spoke the language of human rights.

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If the US really cared about freedom in Cuba, it would end its punishing sanctions | Helen Yaffe

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Critics dismiss Cuba as a failed state, but don’t accept how badly it’s hamstrung by the US blockade

The violent protests that erupted in Cuba in early July were the first serious social disturbances since the “Maleconazo” of 1994, 27 years ago. Both these periods were characterised by deep economic crises. I was living in Havana in the mid-90s and witnessed the conditions that triggered the uprising: empty food markets, shops and pharmacy shelves, regular electricity cuts, production and transport ground to a halt. Such were the consequences of the collapse of the socialist bloc, which accounted for about 90% of the island’s trade.

Betting on the collapse of Cuban socialism, the US approved the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 to obstruct the island’s trade and financial relations with the rest of the world. Meanwhile, more sophisticated and multifaceted “regime change” programmes were developed, from Clinton’s people-to-people programmes to Bush’s Commission for a Free Cuba. From the mid-1990s to 2015, US congress appropriated some $284 million to promote (capitalist) democracy.

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Why the internet in Cuba has become a US political hot potato

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After Havana shut down online access for 72 hours, the battle is on to keep the country connected

Cubans used to joke about Napoleon Bonaparte chatting to Mikhail Gorbachev, George W Bush and Fidel Castro in the afterlife. “If I’d have had your prudence, I’d never have fought Waterloo,” the French emperor tells the last Soviet leader. “If I’d have had your military might, I’d have won Waterloo,” he tells the Texan. Turning last to Castro, the emperor says: “If I’d have had Granma [the Cuban Communist party daily], I’d have lost Waterloo but nobody would have known.”

The joke no longer does the rounds. With millions of Cubans now online, the state’s monopoly on mass communication has been deeply eroded. But after social media helped catalyse historic protests on the island last month, the government temporarily shut the internet down.

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Amnesty condemns Colombia police brutality after scores of protesters killed

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‘He died as he lived, resisting’, says mother of young artist killed in Cali, as report claims authorities used systematic ‘pattern of violence’ in city

Nicolás Guerrero, a 26-year-old artist from the Colombian city of Cali, took to the streets on 2 May to protest against the lack of opportunities he saw in his country. He had a family in Spain that he had hoped one day to bring to South America. But later that night, after riot police launched a brutal crackdown, he was found lying on the pavement, seriously wounded. He died hours later in hospital.

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Leaves of change: Paraguay’s small-scale farmers see a new future in yerba mate tea

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A resurgence in the traditional drink is offering rural communities independence and a sustainable alternative to industrial soy and cattle farming

Four men emerge from the intense heat and steam of the barbacuá into the cold winter’s night in the rural district of Edelira, southern Paraguay. They rest, leaning on pitchforks they have used to turn over the prized load of fragrant yerba mate leaves inside this traditional drying oven. The centuries-old design drives hot air from a fire on to the large wooden frame where the leaves sit.

“I control the leaf’s humidity through intuition,” says Lisandro Benítez, the group’s lead, or uru. “Too humid and it won’t have the right flavour, too hot and dry and it could catch fire.”

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Pedro Francke: relief in Peru as moderate is made finance minister

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President Pedro Castillo completes his cabinet after causing shockwaves with appointment of controversial Guido Bellido as prime minister

After 24 hours of uncertainty and the worst Friday in years on the stock exchange, Peru’s new president, Pedro Castillo, has completed his cabinet, swearing in the moderate leftist economist Pedro Francke as finance minister, and in the process calming jittery investors and anxious Peruvians alike.

Aníbal Torres was also sworn in, as justice minister, on Friday, filling the remaining empty cabinet posts. The rest were sworn in late on Thursday, amid deep unease over Castillo’s choice of prime minister, Guido Bellido, who is under investigation for allegedly defending the Shining Path, a Maoist rebel group that killed tens of thousands of Peruvians in the 1980s and 1990s, and is also accused of making homophobic remarks.

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Floods block food from reaching thousands of refugees in Colombia

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Families fleeing drug gangs and paramilitaries have been cut off, with government accused of being ‘incapable’ of protecting them

Flooding and landslides have left thousands of refugees cut off from food supplies in Ituango, the conflict-strewn municipality in north-western Colombia.

Roads have been blocked by mud and debris after heavy rains, while helicopters have been unable to land. As a result, the delivery of food and medical supplies has been stymied, and communications cut off.

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Lula 2022? Brazil poised for sensational political comeback

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With former president’s political rights restored, polls suggest he would thrash Jair Bolsonaro if he stands for election

Anazir Maria de Oliveira has a simple message for the man they call Lula.

“Comrade, I want you back,” said the 88-year-old union veteran and black activist as she celebrated the return of her “guru” to Brazil’s political fray.

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Haiti president’s widow suspects ‘oligarchs’ of organising his killing

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Martine Moïse, who was injured in attack on her husband, recounts moment assassins opened fire

The widow of Haiti’s recently assassinated president has said she suspects his murder was engineered by wealthy Haitian “oligarchs” who have yet to be apprehended.

Martine Moïse, who survived the 7 July assault in which her husband, Jovenel Moïse, was shot dead, told the New York Times (NYT) she was unconvinced Haitian police – who have detained more than 20 suspects – had identified those who ordered and bankrolled the murder.

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Peru: new president appoints Marxist as prime minister

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Appointment of Guido Bellido ends hopes of a moderate government and is likely to spook jittery investors

A day after being sworn in as Peru’s president, Pedro Castillo has appointed a far-left lawmaker and member of his Marxist party, Guido Bellido, as prime minister, ending expectations of a moderate government.

Beginning nearly three hours late, Castillo swore in an incomplete cabinet on Thursday night that included several figures from the far left and only two women. He did not appoint a finance minister, and Pedro Francke, the favourite for the post, was seen leaving the venue minutes before the ceremony began.

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‘Best a human can be’: indigenous Amazonian Karapiru dies of Covid

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Karapiru Awá Guajá, among the last of the hunter-gatherer Awá tribe, survived a massacre and a decade alone in the forest, inspiring others with his resilience and ‘extraordinary warmth’

He survived a massacre that killed most of his family in the Brazilian Amazon and lived for 10 years alone in the forest, but Karapiru Awá Guajá could not escape the pandemic.

Karapiru, one of the last of the hunter-gatherer nomadic Awá of Maranhão state, died of Covid-19 earlier this month. With only 300 Awá thought to remain, they have been called the “earth’s most threatened tribe”.

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The activists sabotaging railways in solidarity with Indigenous people

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People coming to the aid of the Wet’suwet’en nation to stop a pipeline are using direct action that is prompting terror charges

The night of 28 November, Samantha Brooks, 24, hunched over the railway tracks near Bellingham, Washington, about 32km (20 miles) south of the Canada-US border and installed a “shunt,” according to trial documents obtained by the Guardian.

Related: Dakota access pipeline: court strikes down permits in victory for Standing Rock Sioux

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Five Cuban generals dead in recent days – is the Covid spike to blame?

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Observers fear pandemic could be responsible for deaths, adding intrigue to freedom protests taking place in Cuba and US

Five mostly elderly and retired Cuban military generals have died in recent days in mysterious circumstances, the country’s communist regime has confirmed, adding intrigue to a new round of freedom protests taking place in the island and US.

Related: Leftwing rural teacher Pedro Castillo sworn in as president of Peru

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Leftwing rural teacher Pedro Castillo sworn in as president of Peru

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Castillo vows to govern ‘for the people and with the people’ but will face deeply divided Congress

A rural school teacher who has never held public office has been sworn in as Peru’s new president pledging to govern “with the people and for the people” in a ceremony steeped in historic symbolism on Peru’s bicentenary of independence from Spain.

Wearing his typical wide-brimmed straw hat, Pedro Castillo promised to make sweeping changes to the country in his inaugural speech, he paid homage to Peru’s indigenous people and teachers and vowed to combat corruption, rein in monopolies and boost public spending on education and health.

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London court reopens $7bn Brazil dam collapse lawsuit against BHP

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Six years after deadly Fundao dam rupture, lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant proclaimed as ‘an opportunity for real justice’

London’s court of appeal made a U-turn on Tuesday by agreeing to reopen a US$7bn lawsuit by 200,000 claimants against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP, reviving a case over a dam rupture behind Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

Lawyers for one of the largest group claims in English legal history have been pushing to resurrect the £5bn ($6.9bn) lawsuit against BHP since a lower court struck out the lawsuit as an abuse of process last year – and a court of appeal judge upheld that decision in March.

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‘No parallels’: 2,300-year-old solar observatory awarded Unesco world heritage status

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Chankillo in Peru features 13 stone towers built in 250 to 200 BC that functioned as a calendar by marking the rising and setting arcs of the sun

The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been awarded Unesco world heritage status and dubbed “a masterpiece of human creative genius”.

The 2,300-year-old archaeological ruin Chankillo which lies in a desert valley in northern Peru was one of 13 new global sites added to the list of cultural monuments.

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Julian Assange stripped of citizenship by Ecuador

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Authorities cite unpaid fees and problems in naturalisation papers relating to WikiLeaks founder

Ecuador has revoked the citizenship of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who is currently in a British prison.

Ecuador’s justice system formally notified the Australian of the nullity of his naturalisation in a letter that came in response to a claim filed by the South American country’s foreign ministry.

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