Police in San Juan fired teargas on Monday to disperse thousands of protesters calling on Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Rosselló to quit over leaked homophobic and misogynistic chats with his closest allies. The messages also included homophobic ridicule of singer Ricky Martin, who joined the 100,000-strong protest
Continue reading...Category Archives: Americas
The jungle metropolis: how sprawling Manaus is eating into the Amazon
Informal settlements are expanding, with a new occupation attempt every 11 days, and the threat to the rainforest is severe
Antonio Pinto’s makeshift home on the outskirts of Manaus is an open-air shack, one of dozens of similar dwellings of timber and tarpaulin scattered around the hills.
Around them is the evidence of the use of flame and iron: the hills are scorched and brown, littered with fallen logs and toppled, twisted trees.
Continue reading...Blackouts plunge Venezuela into chaos as minister blames saboteurs
Nationwide outages caused by ‘electromagnetic attack’ on hydroelectric system, government claims
Venezuela has been hit by a nationwide power outage which the government has blamed on an “electromagnetic attack” on the nation’s hydroelectric system.
The blackouts affected at least 14 of Venezuela’s 24 states, including the capital Caracas where power went out at around 4pm (8pm GMT) on Monday. It caused chaos on the city’s roads as traffic lights and the subway stopped working during rush hour.
Continue reading...Three deaths and disappearance of two teenagers in Canada might be linked, say police
Case of dead man and murdered couple might be connected to missing pair who were also headed to Alaska on remote highway
Police in Canada are investigating three suspicious deaths and the disappearance of two teenagers which took place within days of each other along a remote Canadian highway.
At a press conference on Monday, representatives of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the two cases might be linked, despite earlier assurances that there was “nothing to indicate” that the double murder of Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and US citizen Chynna Deese, 24, was related to the discovery of a burning car and a man’s body some 500km south, and the disappearance of two Canadian teenagers.
Continue reading...Video of uncontacted Amazon tribe highlights threat from illegal loggers
Clip shows a bare-chested man with a spear, who is believed to belong to the Awá people, the world’s most threatened tribe
Remarkable close-up footage that appears to show an uncontacted tribesman in the Amazon rainforest has been released by an indigenous media group that wants to raise awareness of the threat posed by illegal loggers, miners and drug traffickers.
Related: The Amazon tribe protecting the forest with bows, arrows, GPS and camera traps
Continue reading...Six months on, Juan Guaidó supporters hang on to fading hope in Venezuela
Fresh protests to mark half a year after he declared himself interim leader, but Nicolás Maduro remains in power
Sol Castro Sánchez was a picture of elation as she took to the streets of Caracas in the days after Juan Guaidó launched his dramatic bid to topple Nicolás Maduro on 23 January.
“I guess this is what people in Germany felt in 1989 when the wall came down,” the retired professor enthused as she marched through Venezuela’s capital with tens of thousands of jubilant protesters and a homemade placard that read: “Enough is enough! We want them out!”
Continue reading...US military: Venezuelan plane ‘aggressively’ shadowed Navy aircraft
- US says incident occurred in international airspace
- Caracas slams ‘incursion’ by ‘intelligence aircraft’
The US military on Sunday accused a Venezuelan fighter aircraft of “aggressively” shadowing a US Navy EP-3 Aries II plane over international airspace, a fresh sign of growing hostility between the two countries.
Related: Trump administration to continue deporting Venezuelans despite crisis
Continue reading...César Pelli, architect behind the Petronas Towers, dies at 92
The Argentinian-American architect designed some of the world’s tallest buildings
The architect César Pelli, who designed some of the world’s tallest and best-known buildings, has died. He was 92.
Anibal Bellomio, a senior associate architect at Pelli’s studio in Connecticut, confirmed that the Argentinian-born American citizen died peacefully on Friday at his home in New Haven.
Continue reading...Peace is war as armed groups roil Colombia’s lawless border region
A peace deal with Farc guerrillas was meant to end decades of conflict but in Catatumbo violence is worse than ever
Camilo Pérez lost two brothers to Colombia’s long war. One was murdered by state-aligned militias, who falsely accused him of collaborating with leftwing guerrillas. The other was riddled with bullets outside his home; Camilo found the body, but never discovered who was responsible.
“The war hit us hard here, it killed our communities, extorted people and forced us from our homes,” said Pérez, who asked to use a pseudonym after receiving death threats.
Continue reading...Give endangered jaguars legal rights, Argentina campaigners ask court
With fewer than 20 left in the South American country’s Gran Chaco forest – the big cats could be classed as a ‘non-human person’
Argentina’s supreme court has been asked to recognize the legal rights of the South American jaguar, of which fewer than 20 individuals remain alive in the country’s Gran Chaco region.
The largest cat in the Americas once roamed the continent as far north as the Grand Canyon, but is now in decline across the entire western hemisphere.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro declares ‘the Amazon is ours’ and calls deforestation data ‘lies’
Far-right president said Brazil is open to partnerships exploiting biodiversity and mining in a conversation with journalists
The Amazon belongs to Brazil and European countries can mind their own business because they have already destroyed their own environment, said Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who also described his own government’s satellite data showing an alarming rise in deforestation as “lies”.
“You have to understand that the Amazon is Brazil’s, not yours,” Bolsonaro said on Friday. “If all this devastation you accuse us of doing was done in the past the Amazon would have stopped existing, it would be a big desert.”
Continue reading...Police arrest 21 suspected mafia members in Canada and Italy
Police raided 48 cafes, businesses and residences connected to the ’Ndrangheta group, seizing C$35m in assets, including five Ferraris
Canadian police have arrested nine suspected members of the the Calabrian organised crime group ’Ndrangheta, who are accused of money laundering and illegal gambling in the Toronto area.
Over three days, police raided 48 cafes, businesses and residences connected to the group, seizing C$35m ($26.8m) in assets, including five Ferraris.
Continue reading...Puerto Rico: thousands flood streets in push to oust governor – in pictures
Photographer Angel Valentin accompanied our reporter Oliver Laughland to capture the growing protests in Puerto Rico against Governor Ricky Rosselló. The street demonstrations have been sparked by leaked text messages showing the US territory’s top official using misogynistic and homophobic slurs with members of his circle. The scandal focused widespread discontent about alleged corruption under Rosselló’s administration
Continue reading...Ministry of cities RIP: the sad story of Brazil’s great urban experiment
How an urbanist dream of fixing Brazil’s chaotic metropolises became a nightmare
Inside Maria Cleudimar da Silva’s flat, gospel music plays softly on the stereo, family photos and religious posters decorate the walls, and a wicker rocking chair and computer furnish the living room. The only evidence of her past life is a faded photo of the home she lived in for 11 years, a shack she called Noah’s Ark for its frequent floods.
She moved in in 1996, pursuing the promise of a better life from Brazil’s rural north-east to São Paulo, its largest city, where she settled in Paraisópolis, the city’s largest favela.
Continue reading...Clashes in Puerto Rico during protest against governor Ricardo Rosselló – video
Demonstrations against the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, turned violent again on Wednesday. Police fired teargas as protesters lit fires and threw rocks. The demonstrations were triggered by leaked homophobic and misogynistic messages between Rosselló and his closest allies
Continue reading...Puerto Rico police clash with protesters against governor’s homophobic texts
Teargas and rubber bullets used to disperse huge demonstration following leak of Ricardo Rosselló sexist slurs
Thousands of protesters in Puerto Rico have clashed with riot police, as volleys of teargas and rubber bullets were used to disperse a mostly peaceful protest that descended into chaos just yards from the governor’s residence in San Juan.
The island’s capital has seen days of sustained protest following a leak of hundreds of pages of text messages, many including homophobic and misogynistic slurs, between the Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló and 11 members of his inner circle. A number of people in Rosselló’s administration have resigned after the leak, but the governor has refused to tender his resignation despite continuing violence on the streets.
Continue reading...El Chapo: Mexican drug lord sentenced to life in prison
US district judge imposed life sentence plus 30 years at hearing in federal Brooklyn court
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Mexican drug lord found guilty of running a murderous criminal enterprise that smuggled tons of drugs into the United States, was sentenced by a US judge on Wednesday to spend the rest of his life in prison.
US District Judge Brian Cogan imposed the sentence of life plus 30 years, which was mandatory under the law, at a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.
Continue reading...‘Not a dustbin’: Cambodia to send plastic waste back to the US and Canada
Country vows to return 1,600 tonnes of waste as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments
Cambodia has announced it will send 1,600 tonnes of plastic waste found in shipping containers back to the US and Canada, as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments.
China’s decision to ban foreign plastic waste imports last year threw global recycling into chaos, leaving developed nations struggling to find countries to send their trash.
Continue reading...A city suffocating: most polluted city in Americas struggles to change
Wood smoke smothers Coyhaique, Chile, in June and July. Yet despite the WHO ranking its air worst in the Americas, residents are reluctant to alter their habits
Photographs by Claudio Frías
“I was born and raised beside a roaring fire,” says Yasna Seguel proudly, as wet snowflakes tap against the kitchen window behind her and orange flames warm an outstretched palm. A tobacco-yellow stain soaks into the table cloth as she sets her mate gourd down to select a fresh log for the fire.
Every evening through the bitterly cold winter months of June and July, the southern city of Coyhaique, the most populous in the region of Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, is smothered by a thick, fragrant blanket of damp wood smoke that clings to the hillsides.
Continue reading...Police in Brazil shut down factory making fake Ferraris and Lamborghinis
Father and son accused of offering the cars on social media for $45,000 to $60,000 – a fraction of the price of the real thing
Police in Brazil say they’ve shut down a clandestine factory that was producing fake Ferraris and sham Lamborghinis.
A father and son who owned the workshop in the southern state of Santa Catarina have been arrested on industrial property charges.
Continue reading...