Category Archives: Americas

Rio de Janeiro: at least 25 killed in city’s deadliest police raid on favela

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  • Raid in violation of court order is city’s deadliest ever
  • Police hail blow against drug gangs but critics decry ‘massacre’

At least 25 people have been killed after heavily armed police stormed one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas in pursuit of drug traffickers, in what was the deadliest raid in the city’s history.

About 200 members of Rio’s civil police launched their incursion into Jacarezinho in the early hours of Thursday, sprinting into the vast redbrick community as a bullet-proof helicopter circled overhead with snipers poised on each side. By lunchtime at least 25 people were reported dead, among them André Frias, a drug squad officer who was shot in the head. Police and local media described the other victims as “suspects” but offered no immediate evidence for that claim.

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‘Are we in trouble? Absolutely’: Alberta battles worst Covid rate in North America

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Critics say relaxed approach to restrictions has caused surge in prairie province averse to perceived government overreach

In an open field outside the prairie town of Bowden, Alberta, hundreds of people braved chilly winds and the threat of spring rain to attend their first rodeo in more than a year.

For the unmasked attendees cheering on as riders clung into bucking horses, the gathering this weekend must have seemed like a long-awaited return to normality.

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‘No food and no fuel’: Colombia torn by protests and violent crackdown

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23 protesters and one police officer killed after general strike over unpopular tax reform met with heavy-handed response

Mass protests were held across Colombia on Wednesday after a night of unrest in the capital city, as street violence continued after more than a week of angry anti-government demonstrations.

Twenty-three protesters and one police officer have been killed in the unrest that began with with a general strike over an unpopular tax reform but has grown into an outburst of rage over poverty exacerbated by the pandemic, human rights abuses and the authorities’ heavy-handed response to protests.

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Blackfeet tribe gives surplus vaccines to First Nations relatives in Canada

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Effort by illustrates the disparity with which the US and its northern neighbors are distributing doses

The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana has provided about 1,000 surplus vaccines to its First Nations relatives and others in Canada, in an illustration of the disparity in speed at which the US and its northern neighbor are distributing doses. While more than 30% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated, in Canada that figure is about 3%.

Among those who received the vaccine at the Piegan-Carway border crossing were Sherry Cross Child and Shane Little Bear, of Stand Off, about 30 miles (50km ) north of the border.

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Colombia protests: what is driving the deadly unrest? – video report

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The UN has condemned the violent repression of protests in Colombia after clashes between police and demonstrators left at least 18 dead and 87 people missing. The demonstrations began with a general strike last Wednesday over an unpopular tax change but quickly escalated when protesters were met by riot police armed with teargas, bean-bag rounds and billy clubs. The now-axed policy would have hiked taxes on individuals and business during a coronavirus pandemic that continues to ravage public health and the economy

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Top 10 books about Colombia | Julianne Pachico

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There is more to this rich and varied country than Gabriel García Márquez, coffee and its violent past. Novelist Julianne Pachico shares her favourite books about her childhood home

Growing up in Colombia in the 1990s, I rarely saw any tourists. That has changed dramatically in the past decade, especially following a historic peace deal with the Farc in 2016. My novel The Anthill examines the transformation of Medellín from a war-torn city wracked by violence into a trendy, rapidly gentrifying destination for digital nomads, bitcoin investors and self-righteous religious groups. But the past is never easily shed.

It’s wonderful that more people are interested in Colombia, but there’s so much more to it than Gabriel García Márquez, coffee, and its violent past. It’s unlikely that any of us are going on any international trips anytime soon, but in the meantime, here’s a list of my favourite books about the country, which will hopefully help keep the travel bug in check, and better acquaint readers with depictions of Colombia beyond the headlines.

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Son of the soil Pedro Castillo promises a presidency for Peru

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Next month’s runoff election pits the 51-year-old teacher against the far-right daughter of the country’s 90s autocrat

By law, any president of Peru must be born on Peruvian soil. But few of the country’s past leaders know that soil like the frontrunning candidate in the current electoral race – the son of Andean peasant farmers, who grew up in poverty.

On a recent morning, Pedro Castillo wore a woollen poncho, sandals made from old car tyres and a traditional wide-brimmed straw hat as he tended to his cows on his farm in Chugur, a tiny hamlet seven hours’ drive from the city of Cajamarca.

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Bolsonaro ignored repeated warnings about Covid, ex-health minister says

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Luiz Henrique Mandetta tells senate inquiry president was aware his anti-scientific response risked ‘death on an enormous scale’

Jair Bolsonaro ignored repeated warnings that his anti-scientific response to Covid-19 was leading Brazil down an “extremely perilous path” and putting tens of thousands of lives at risk, the country’s former health minister has claimed.

Giving oral evidence to a senate inquiry into Brazil’s coronavirus calamity on Tuesday, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who led the health ministry at the start of the pandemic, said he believed the Brazilian president’s conduct had helped generate an unnecessarily large tragedy.

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UN condemns violent repression of Colombia protests after at least 18 die

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Riot police rampage across streets, shoot protesters and charge at crowds with motorcycles in week of unrest across the country

The United Nations has condemned the violent repression of protests in Colombia, after clashes between police and demonstrators left at least 18 dead and 87 people missing.

In a week of unrest across the country, riot police have rampaged across the smoke-filled streets, shooting protesters at point-blank range and charging at crowds with their motorcycles.

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At least 24 dead as Mexico City metro overpass collapses

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Officials say at least 65 injured as videos on TV and social media showed the overpass falling on to cars below

A partially collapsed metro overpass has claimed at least 24 lives in Mexico City, where rescuers worked through the night to free trapped passengers and search for victims.

Mexico City’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, said via Twitter that at least 65 people had been taken to hospital after the collapse near the Los Olivos metro station, which occurred at about 10.30pm on Monday.

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Why won’t this giant oil pipeline reveal its secret backers?

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Expansion will stretch hundreds miles and is fiercely opposed by numerous groups – but despite repeated calls the Canadian government has not forced the pipeline reveal its insurers

Nestled in the harbors of Vancouver, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation has lived for thousands of years within an inlet set against the mountain views of the Pacific north-west.

But across the water from Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s reserve, less than 2km away, or a little over a mile, is a jarring juxtaposition: an industrial terminal for the large Trans Mountain oil pipeline.

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Colombia braces for further unrest after police react violently to mass protests

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At least 16 demonstrators and one officer dead after police fired at protesters and rammed crowds with motorcycles

Colombia is bracing for further unrest after a weekend in which largely peaceful nationwide demonstrations were met with a violent police reaction which left at least 16 demonstrators and one police officer dead and hundreds injured.

Videos shared on social media over the weekend showed police firing at protesters sometimes from close range, ramming crowds with motorcycles, and bashing demonstrators with their shields.

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Fifty new outlets, 250 journalists: Canadian startup unveils plan to revive local news

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As local papers close their doors, a morning newsletter defied the odds. Now its founder aims to push the model nationwide

Local journalism has shed jobs faster than the coal industry, leaving swaths of North America as news deserts with little or no regular coverage.

But the grim prospects for an industry in decline didn’t deter the Canadian tech entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, who in 2019 hired a reporter and launched a daily newsletter in his home town, Victoria.

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‘Calamity of maternal deaths’: Covid concern grows for Brazil’s pregnant

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Following 803 pregnant and postpartum deaths, authorities have warned women to delay pregnancy as alarm rises

This month should have been one of the happiest in Letícia Aparecida Gomes’s life. The pregnant 23-year-old Brazilian had been due to marry before delivering her baby, Elloah, in August.

Instead, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept Gomes’s country claiming thousands of lives each day, she was taken to hospital having been infected herself.

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Proud Boys Canada dissolves itself, months after designation as terrorist entity

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Far-right group was deemed a terrorist entity in Canada in February with authorities describing group as ‘serious and growing’ threat

Proud Boys Canada, a far-right group that Ottawa named as a terrorist entity earlier this year, has dissolved itself, saying it has done nothing wrong, according to a statement by the organisation.

In February, Canada said the group posed an active security threat and played a “pivotal role” in the deadly attack on the US Capitol in January by pro-Trump rioters. US authorities have charged several members of the Proud Boys in connection with the 6 January assault.

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Political chaos and poverty leave South America at virus’s mercy

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President Jair Bolsonaro’s prediction that the crisis was nearing an end was misguided in Brazil and many of its neighbours

South America produced some of the most horrific episodes of the pandemic last year, with mass graves dug in the Brazilian Amazon and bodies dumped on pavements in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. But at the end of 2020 there was some hope that with the onset of vaccination the worst might have passed. Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, even claimed the crisis had reached its “tail-end” in December.

Such predictions have proved grotesquely misguided. Brazil’s death toll has since more than doubled to more than 400,000, after an explosion of infections caused a catastrophic healthcare collapse. At least 100,000 Brazilians have died in the last 36 days and 100,000 more are expected to lose their lives before July.

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Act now to prevent oxygen shortage in Covid-hit countries, say campaigners

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Focus on vaccines and tests has been obscuring the need for oxygen in low- and middle-income countries

The scenes in India of families desperately searching for oxygen for critically ill Covid patients will be repeated in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other countries in Africa and around the world unless a significant international effort is made to ensure all countries have good oxygen supplies, campaigners have said.

The focus on vaccines and tests, while important, has been obscuring the need for oxygen, which is cheap and readily available in high-income countries but in short supply elsewhere, they say. Before India, there was similarly shocking footage from Manaus in Brazil where distressed relatives pleaded for oxygen to keep a family member alive.

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Glacial lakes threaten millions with flooding as planet heats up

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More than 12,000 deaths have already been attributed to glacial lake outburst floods worldwide

An increasing number of people are being threatened by flooding caused by glacial lakes bursting, scientists have warned.

As the planet warms and glaciers recede, meltwater accumulates and forms lakes, often as a result of ice or moraine acting as a dam. Since 1990, the volume, area and number of these glacial lakes has increased by 50% globally. When these lakes become too full there is a risk that they may breach or overflow, releasing huge volumes of water and causing catastrophic flooding.

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Mexico expects US to send 5m more Covid vaccine doses, president says

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  • Mexican production of AstraZeneca jab suffers setbacks
  • López Obrador: “it’s probable that they’ll help us with a loan’

Mexica’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Friday the US will probably send his country 5m more doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, as the company admitted production in Central and South America had suffered multiple setbacks.

Related: US cites Indian variant in implementing travel ban from Tuesday

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