Category Archives: Americas

Mexico president rebuked for careless response to Covid after testing positive

Posted on by

Andrés Manuel López Obrador tests positive day after saying crisis nearing the end and ‘little lights’ at end of tunnel could be seen

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared at the weekend that his country was nearing the end of the coronavirus crisis, telling supporters that “little lights” at the end of the tunnel could already be seen.

The next day he tested positive for Covid-19, throwing the country into tumult – and prompting fresh criticisms of his cavalier response to a disease that has killed nearly 150,000 citizens.

Continue reading...

Chile court overturns convictions for 1982 murder of former president Frei

Posted on by
  • Judges rule Eduardo Frei Montalva ‘not a victim of homicide’
  • Doctor and driver among six convicted in Pinochet-era death

Chile’s appeals court has overturned the convictions of six people for the murder of the former president, Eduardo Frei Montalva, in the 1980s during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

The ex-president’s doctors, his chauffeur, an army officer and a former intelligence agent were sentenced to between three and 10 years in jail in January 2019 for the poisoning of 71-year-old Frei in a Santiago clinic in 1982.

Continue reading...

Forbes drops Bermuda trip for entrepreneurs to escape Covid ‘gloom’

Posted on by

Invitation for people on magazine’s ‘30 under 30’ list is dropped hours after Guardian inquiry

A place on one of Forbes’s “30 under 30” lists has long been a marker of status and potential for a group the magazine has proclaimed as the US and Canada’s “brashest entrepreneurs”.

In a time of global crisis, they were offered an additional reward this week: a month-long trip to a five star hotel and beach club in Bermuda, “one of the most desirable destinations in the world”, to escape from the “monotony and gloom” of the coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading...

‘Nowhere is safe’: Colombia confronts alarming surge in femicides

Posted on by

Vice-president joins activists in calling for zero tolerance of ‘machismo’ that has left hundreds of women and girls dead

When authorities pulled the lifeless body of four-year-old María Ángel Molina out of a river in rural Colombia on 13 January, the South American country mourned what was the 14th documented case of femicide this year.

Her murderer, Juan Carlos Galvis, also kidnapped María’s sister, and later admitted to authorities that he committed the brutal crimes in order to punish the girls’ mother for seeing another man.

Continue reading...

Motorcade rallies call for impeachment of Bolsonaro in Brazil

Posted on by

Protests take place across country at what many see as president’s shambolic Covid response

Thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets in their cars to demand Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment as polls showed support for the far-right president slipping over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, as Brazil’s official Covid-19 death toll hit 216,000, leftwing and centrist protesters organised motorcade rallies in more than 20 state capitals, including Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Belém.

Continue reading...

Mexico faces challenge to light-touch Covid approach as US restricts travel

Posted on by

Biden administration’s demand that travelers provide a negative test and self-quarantine could hit Mexico’s tourist industry hard

New US coronavirus travel restrictions are likely to have an outsized impact on Mexico, which is also struggling with an uncontrolled outbreak of the virus and record-breaking deaths.

Related: Covid fatalities soar in Mexico as president condemned for inaction

Continue reading...

‘A complete massacre, a horror film’: inside Brazil’s Covid disaster

Posted on by

Hospitals in Amazonas state overwhelmed after surge in infections linked to new variant, leaving many without even the most basic supplies

It took just 60 minutes at daybreak for the seven patients to die, asphyxiated as coronavirus swept back into the Brazilian Amazon with nightmarish force.

“Today was one of the hardest days in all my years of public service. You feel so impotent,” sobbed Francisnalva Mendes, the health chief in the river town of Coari, as she remembered the moment on Tuesday when its hospital’s oxygen supply ran out.

Continue reading...

How creating wildlife crossings can help reindeer, bears – and even crabs

Posted on by

Sweden’s announcement this week that it is to build a series of animal bridges is the latest in global efforts to help wildlife navigate busy roads

Every April, Sweden’s main highway comes to a periodic standstill. Hundreds of reindeer overseen by indigenous Sami herders shuffle across the asphalt on the E4 as they begin their journey west to the mountains after a winter gorging on the lichen near the city of Umeå. As Sweden’s main arterial road has become busier, the crossings have become increasingly fractious, especially if authorities do not arrive in time to close the road. Sometimes drivers try to overtake the reindeer as they cross – spooking the animals and causing long traffic jams as their Sami owners battle to regain control.

“During difficult climate conditions, these lichen lands can be extra important for the reindeer,” says Per Sandström, a landscape ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who works as an intermediary between the Sami and authorities to improve the crossings.

Continue reading...

MEPs vote to add Channel and British Virgin Islands to tax haven blacklist

Posted on by

UK overseas territories such as Cayman Islands also may lose protection once afforded by UK’s EU membership

The European parliament is pushing for UK overseas territories including the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey to be added to an EU tax havens blacklist after the conclusion of the Brexit deal.

Sending a signal that tougher action on tax avoidance was required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of adding more nations and territories to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.

Continue reading...

Canada’s governor general resigns after report finds workplace harassment

Posted on by

Anonymous staff members say they were berated by Julie Payette to the point of tears, prompting an independent investigation

Canada’s governor general has resigned after an external report found that the Queen’s representative had overseen a toxic work environment in which staff were bullied to tears.

The report, which was to be released early next week, painted a damning picture of Julie Payette’s leadership and had raised concerns among senior government figures over her ability to continue in the vice-regal role.

Continue reading...

Mexico: witness to disappearance of 43 students alleges soldiers involved in attack

Posted on by

Witness testified soldiers detained group of students, interrogated them and then handed them to a drug gang

A witness to the disappearance of 43 Mexican student teachers has alleged that soldiers were involved in the 2014 attack , the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has confirmed.

The disappearance of the trainees from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College on 26 September 2014 rocked Mexico, sparking widespread protests and calls for justice, but the investigation into the case has been widely criticized.

Continue reading...

Honduras lawmakers seek to lock in ban on abortion for ever

Posted on by

A constitutional reform would require a three-quarters majority in congress to overturn Latin America’s most draconian ban

Legislators in Honduras are pushing a constitutional reform through Congress that would make it virtually impossible to legalise abortion in the country – now or in the future.

Related: Argentina legalizing abortion will spur reform in Latin America, minister says

Continue reading...

The migrants Trump forced Mexico to stop: Ada Trillo’s best photograph

Posted on by

‘Trump had threatened Mexico with tariffs if it let in this caravan from Honduras. Two hours after crossing this river, many were teargassed then deported’

I had been following a migrant caravan north from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, for around 10 days. It was 23 January 2020, and this was the moment the group crossed the Suchiate river, which divides Guatemala from Mexico.

The Mexican authorities had deployed the national guard to stop the caravan entering their country because Trump had threatened to increase tariffs on Mexican goods coming into the United States if they let migrants in. Previously, migrants had been allowed to traverse the length of Mexico with no problem.

Continue reading...

Mexico archaeologists reveal tale of cannibalism and reprisal from conquest

Posted on by

A convoy of Spaniards and allies was ritually sacrificed in 1520 at Tecoaque – ‘the place where they ate them’ – before Hernán Cortés wreaked revenge

New research suggests Spanish conquistadores butchered at least a dozen women and their children in an Aztec-allied town where the inhabitants sacrificed and ate a detachment of Spaniards they had captured months earlier.

The National Institute of Anthropology and History published findings on Monday from years of excavation work at the town of Tecoaque, which means “the place where they ate them” in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs.

Continue reading...

Pink seesaws across US-Mexico border named Design of the Year 2020

Posted on by

Creators say they hope the work encourages people to build bridges between communities

A collection of bright pink seesaws that allowed people to interact over the US-Mexico border has won the prestigious Design of the Year award, with its creators saying they hoped the work encourages people to build bridges between communities.

The Teeter Totter Wall, which bridged across El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico during a 40-minute session, was described as not only feeling “symbolically important” but also highlighting “the possibility of things” by the judging panel.

Continue reading...

British Virgin Islands’ governor launches inquiry into alleged corruption

Posted on by

Gus Jaspert’s extraordinary step comes amid claims of a climate of fear in the UK overseas territory

Allegations of widespread political corruption, misuse of taxpayer’s money and a climate of fear in the British Virgin Islands have led its governor to take the extraordinary step of establishing an independent judge-led inquiry into the claims.

Gus Jaspert, the British-appointed BVI governor, with the personal backing of the UK prime minister, has established a commission of inquiry to investigate concerns over governance, including specific allegations that point to possible corruption and infiltration by serious organised criminal gangs. The six-month inquiry, to be led by Sir Gary Hickinbottom, follows the discovery by police in November of a haul of cocaine worth more than £190m.

Jaspert broke the news to the island on Monday after returning from the UK, where he was on leave. It was reported that he had been struggling with his communications systems in recent weeks, and complained to the premier, Andrew Fahie, but said nothing was done, forcing him to ring newsrooms individually.

Continue reading...

Canada police officers refuse questions over one-year-old’s shooting death

Posted on by

Watchdog says none of the officers who opened fire on pickup truck in Ontario in November have spoken to investigators

Two months after a one-year old boy was killed in a police shooting in rural Ontario, the officers involved have still not spoken to investigators, according to a police watchdog.

Ontario’s special investigations unit (SIU) said that none of the officers who opened fire on a pickup truck on 27 November have agreed to interviews, adding that they had no legal obligation to do so.

Continue reading...

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro sends oxygen to tackle Brazil’s Covid crisis

Posted on by
  • President orders convoy to border in politically charged gesture
  • Patients in Amazon city of Manaus reportedly ran out of oxygen

Venezuela’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, has sent an emergency shipment of oxygen to his country’s border with Brazil in a politically charged gesture he said was to help alleviate “Jair Bolsonaro’s public health disaster”.

In recent days the Brazilian state of Amazonas, which borders southern Venezuela, has been plunged into coronavirus chaos for the second time in under a year.

Continue reading...

Dominican Republic activists fear total abortion ban banishes women to the dark ages

Posted on by

Scores of Dominican women die each year from botched attempts to end unwanted pregnancies

As Argentina becomes the first major Latin American country to fully legalize abortion, activists in the Dominican Republic fear their own government is banishing its women to the dark ages by upholding a total ban first implemented in 1884.

The Dominican Republic is one of four countries in Latin America – along with Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador – where abortion is illegal in all circumstances.

Continue reading...

Bolsonaro rival hails Covid vaccinations as ‘triumph of science against denialists’

Posted on by

São Paulo governor João Doria takes aim at Brazil’s president after his state beat federal authorities to secure first coronavirus vaccines

Brazil’s first Covid-19 vaccine has been administered after more than 209,000 deaths, sparking an outpouring of emotion and a ferocious political skirmish that saw one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s key rivals accuse him of revelling in the “stench of death”.

The China-made CoronaVac was injected into the arm of a frontline nurse in São Paulo at 3.30pm local time, after Brazil’s health regulator approved the emergency use of vaccines produced by China’s Sinovac and Oxford/AstraZeneca.

Continue reading...