Fresh clashes have broken out in Bolivia’s main city as the newly declared interim president Jeanine Añez faced challenges to her leadership in the senate and the streets from supporters of the exiled leader Evo Morales.
Related: Bolivia: Jeanine Añez claims presidency after ousting of Evo Morales
Continue reading...The Bolivian senator Jeanine Añez declared herself the country’s interim president on Tuesday, swearing in to loud cheers and applause after the resignation of Evo Morales, who flew to Mexico under pressure from police and the army.
The move is expected to pave the way for fresh elections after a fiercely disputed election which the Organization of American States found was rigged in Morales's favour.
The Bolivian senator Jeanine Añez has declared herself the country’s interim president after the resignation of Evo Morales, even though lawmakers from his party boycotted the legislative session where she assumed office.
Añez, 52, took temporary control of the Senate late on Tuesday. “I will take the measures necessary to pacify the country,” she said, swearing on a bible to loud cheers and applause. The move is expected to pave the way for fresh elections.
Continue reading...Former president says it hurts to leave ‘for political reasons’ as foreign minister confirms he has left for Mexico
Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales has boarded a plane bound for Mexico where he has been granted asylum, the Mexican foreign minister has announced.
Earlier on Monday evening Morales tweeted a farewell after his resignation in the wake of a disputed election, saying that he would be take up the offer of asylum in Mexico but would soon “return with greater strength and energy”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary lambasts Labour leader for saying Evo Morales was forced out by coup
Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, has accused Jeremy Corbyn of putting Marxist solidarity ahead of democracy after the Labour leader said Evo Morales had been forced to resign as Bolivia’s president due to a military coup.
Morales stood down on Sunday after 14 years in power following a report by the Organization of American States found that “clear manipulations” of the voting system in the first round of elections on 20 October had occurred. The findings prompted the military and civilian police to call on him to stand aside.
Continue reading...A team of doctors and volunteers are travelling by boat to treat and educate indigenous communities at higher risk of Aids
As the serpentine Amazon river meanders through a sea of jungle, a little red boat speeds across its muddy brown waters. Powered by two outboard motors, the vessel carries a cargo of volunteers, medics and nurses, an awning, and dozens of HIV screening tests.
The first stop is Nueva Vida Yahua, an indigenous village 40 minutes down the Nanay river from Iquitos. The women are dressed in red skirts and grass tops worn draped over their shoulders, the men in long grass skirts and headdresses made from blue macaw feathers.
Continue reading...President quits after nearly 14 years in power, hours after promising fresh elections
Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, is to resign after the military called for him to step down and allies fell away following a fierce backlash over his disputed re-election.
Morales, the leader for nearly 14 years, said in televised comments that he would submit his resignation letter to help restore stability, though he aimed barbs at what he called a “civic coup.”
Continue reading...After the massacre of a US family, the president offered to help ‘cleaning out these monsters’ but previous interventions have brought little peace
After nine members of a Mormon family with US/Mexican citizenship were slaughtered by gunmen, Donald Trump reacted by urging his Mexican counterpart to let him sort out the drug cartels.
“If Mexico needs or requests help cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” the US president tweeted on Tuesday, after news broke of the massacre – the latest in a series of extremely violent events across the country.
Continue reading...Officers in country’s main city join colleagues across Bolivia in declaring support for protests
Police in Bolivia’s main city, La Paz, have declared themselves in mutiny, joining anti-government protests and fellow officers in at least six other cities. The move puts in serious doubt the president Evo Morales’ ability to hang on to power after weeks of unrest over disputed election results.
Local news reports on Saturday indicated that groups of police in the cities of Tarija, Oruro and Beni had joined their colleagues in Santa Cruz, Sucre and Cochabamba in rebelling against Morales’ government.
Continue reading...Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told a crowd of thousands that he did not have a ‘thirst for revenge’
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has addressed thousands of jubilant supporters outside a union headquarters a day after being released from prison.
Dressed in a black blazer and T-shirt, Lula spoke from a stage outside the union near São Paulo that he once led and that served as the base for his political career. “During 580 days, I prepared myself spiritually, prepared myself to not have hatred, to not have thirst for revenge,” he said on Saturday.
Continue reading...Groups of officers in major cities join protests over disputed presidential election result
Police in at least three Bolivian cities have declared mutinies and joined anti-government protests – a possible indication that parts of the security forces may be withdrawing their backing for President Evo Morales after weeks of unrest over disputed election results.
Bolivia’s defence minister, Javier Zavaleta, said on Friday that no military action would be taken against the police involved for now and the government would not mobilise troops as tens of thousands of Bolivians took to the streets in cities across the country.
Continue reading...Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was greeted by overjoyed supporters as he was released from prison, where he was serving a 12-year corruption sentence, after a supreme court ruling.
Lula was greeted on Friday by supporters wearing T-shirts emblazoned with his face and waving red flags outside the federal police HQ in the city of Curitiba, where he had been imprisoned for 580 days.
Continue reading...Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been released from prison where he was serving a 12-year corruption sentence, after a supreme court ruling that delighted his supporters and infuriated followers of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
He was greeted by hundreds of supporters wearing red vests emblazoned with his face outside the federal police headquarters in the city of Curitiba, where he has been imprisoned for 580 days.
Continue reading...A French doctoral student has been denied residency in Quebec after officials in Canada’s francophone province ruled that she had an inadequate command of her mother tongue.
Emilie Dubois, a graphic designer who has lived and studied in Quebec City for eight years, was stunned to find her recent residency application denied on the grounds that she failed to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of French.
Continue reading...Operator faces choice of weakening 14km barrier or potentially devastating a biodiversity hotspot
The biggest hydroelectric project in the Amazon rainforest has a design flaw that poses a “very serious” threat to human life and globally important ecosystems, according to documents and expert testimony received by the Guardian.
The studies suggest engineers failed to anticipate the impact of water shortages on the Pimental dam at Belo Monte, which has been closed and turned into a barrier. This is forcing the operators to choose between a structural weakening of the 14km-wide compacted-earth barrier and a reallocation of water in the reservoir or on the Xingu river, which is home to indigenous communities, fishing villages and some of the world’s most endangered species.
Continue reading...The deaths of nine women and children has thrust into focus a small religious community and their long history in a remote corner of northern Mexico
Amid the scrubby foothills of Sonora’s Sierra Madre mountains, they farmed pomegranates and pistachios, raised large families and preached a fundamentalist Mormon faith.
Related: Child survivors of massacred family spent 10 hours hiding in Mexican hills
Continue reading...Greenwald has faced backlash from far right after series of articles damaging to Jair Bolsonaro’s government
Brazil’s bitterly divided politics reached a new low on Thursday, when a rightwing columnist smacked the US journalist Glenn Greenwald in the face on a live radio program.
Greenwald and Augusto Nunes are prominent figures on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but Thursday’s physical violence – which was being livestreamed – left Brazilians stunned.
Continue reading...Other officers have been accused of a beating and sexual abuse as unrest enters third week, with 2,000 injured
A Chilean police major who shot two students during a school protest has been arrested as a wave of political unrest enters a third week and the number of injured in street violence topped 2,000.
Maj Humberto Tapia was arrested by detectives on Thursday and charged with illegally discharging his shotgun inside a public school that had been occupied by students on Tuesday. A call by the beleaguered principal led to a confrontation with students in which Tapia fired into the floor, sending buckshot ricocheting into the legs of students.
Continue reading...With Mexican soldiers standing guard, a mother and two sons were carried to the grave in hand-hewn pine coffins on Thursday at the first funeral for the victims of a drug cartel ambush that left nine Mexican American women and children dead.
Clad in shirtsleeves, suits or modest dresses, about 500 mourners embraced in grief under white tents erected in La Mora, a hamlet of about 300 people who consider themselves Mormon but are not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some wept, and some sang hymns.
Continue reading...Pollution stretches across 2,400km of coastline, with scientists fearing contamination of food chain
Hundreds of kilometres of mangroves and coral reefs, as well as humpback whale breeding grounds, are under threat from an oil spill that has polluted more than 2,400km of Brazil’s north-eastern coast in the last two months.
The Brazilian Navy, which has deployed 8,500 personnel, 30 ships and 17 aircraft in the cleanup operation, said this week that 4,200 tonnes of oil have been removed from beaches, amid fears by scientists that some has already entered the food chain.
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