Category Archives: Americas

Trump administration to continue deporting Venezuelans despite crisis

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  • US as yet unwilling to grant temporary protected status
  • Senators accuse Trump of ‘having it both ways’ over Maduro

The Trump administration has said it is not yet willing to grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans, meaning it will continue to deport people back to a country it says is being destroyed by a tyrant.

The news comes amid a humanitarian crisis that could forcibly displace as many as 8.2 million people by the end of 2020, and the same month that the United Nations accused the Venezuelan government of killing thousands of its own citizens.

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El Salvador: woman whose baby died in toilet birth back in court

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Evelyn Beatriz Hernández was jailed for murder after she was ruled to have induced abortion

A 21-year-old woman who gave birth to a baby in a toilet in El Salvador has returned to court for a second trial for murder in a case that has drawn international attention because of the country’s highly restrictive abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernández, who says she was raped and had no idea she was pregnant, had already served 33 months of her 30-year sentence when the supreme court overturned the ruling against her in February and ordered a fresh trial with a new judge.

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Daniel Ortega’s most wanted: Nicaragua’s exiles in Costa Rica

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Costa Rica has become a precarious refuge for thousands of Nicaraguan exiles. In the streets of San José, they continue to feel President Ortega’s reach

This project was produced by Dawning, an organization devoted to investigative journalism. It is an independent effort, self-funded, non-partisan and non-ideological, in the tradition of journalism in the public interest.

Forty years ago, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo hid together in safe houses around Costa Rica’s capital while waiting for the imminent fall of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Today, thousands of their exiled compatriots hide in the same city, San José, awaiting the fall of the presidential couple.

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Canadian citizen detained in China as row continues over Huawei chief

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Beijing arrests Canadian citizen on drug-related charges amid diplomatic crisis, following detention of Meng Wanzhou

A Canadian citizen detained in China is being held on drug-related offences, Beijing said Monday, at a time of tense relations between the two countries.

News of the latest arrest comes amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by the detention of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer for Chinese tech giant Huawei, in Vancouver on a US extradition bid.

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Mike Pence visits migrant detention facilities on southern US border – video

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The vice-president, Mike Pence, got a first-hand view of migrant detention facilities after touring two centres in Texas as he spoke out against grandstanding on Capitol Hill after legislators delivered emotional testimony about appalling conditions. Pence was in the border city of McAllen, Texas where he was joined by a delegation of Republican lawmakers as they toured migrant detention centres.  President Donald Trump has said that a nationwide wave of arrests of immigrants facing deportation will begin over the weekend.

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Colombia must curb anti-union violence | Letters

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A plea to the Colombian government to tackle civil society violence and honour the 2016 peace agreement

The International Trade Union Confederation’s latest report shows the shocking extent of violence against trade unionists in Colombia. Thirty-four trade unionists were murdered in 2018 – almost two-thirds of worldwide cases. This is more than double the previous year’s tally of 15 murders, which even then made Colombia the most dangerous country for labour organising.

The violence has continued into 2019, with 10 members of the Fensuagro agricultural union killed this year, and 30 since late 2016. Thirteen teachers were also killed in 2018 amid nationwide strike action over conditions and pay.

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Venezuela seeks extradition of suspect accused of burning man to death

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Enzo Franchini Oliveros accused over death of Orlando José Figuera, 21, who was set alight during anti-government protests

Venezuela is seeking the extradition from Spain of a man accused of burning another man to death during anti-government protests in Caracas two years ago.

Related: Venezuela's rule of law has crumbled under Maduro, says legal watchdog

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New generation of political exiles leave Bolsonaro’s Brazil ‘to stay alive’

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Politicians, academics and writers have fled a climate of death threats and hostility reminiscent of the military dictatorship

At times, the solitude and separation from family and friends have plunged Jean Wyllys into despair. “I’ve been through moments of deep sadness, I’ve spent the whole night crying,” he said, speaking by phone from his new home in Berlin. “So I avoid thinking about it too much. I’ve kept very busy, I’ve written a lot.”

A writer and university professor, Wyllys won Brazil’s version of Big Brother before becoming one of the country’s best-known leftwing politicians, and the only openly gay lawmaker in congress.

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El Salvador rape victim jailed for murder after stillbirth faces retrial

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Pro-choice activists say Evelyn Beatríz Hernández’s case will be important in determining the stance of the country’s new leader

A teenage rape victim in El Salvador who was convicted for murdering her child and jailed for nearly three years after a stillbirth will face a retrial next week, her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Evelyn Beatríz Hernández was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2017 for aggravated murder by a female judge who ruled the teenager had induced an abortion, which is a crime under any circumstance in the Central American nation.

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Toddler who fell to death from cruise ship ‘slipped out of open window’

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Family’s lawyer claims window was left open in children’s play area on 11th storey of Freedom of the Seas in Puerto Rico

An 18-month-old Indiana girl who fell to her death from the 11th storey of a cruise ship in Puerto Rico plunged from a window inexplicably left open in a children’s play area, the family’s attorney has claimed.

Police in Puerto Rico had said on Monday that Chloe Wiegand apparently slipped from her grandfather’s hands on Sunday while he was holding her out of an 11th-floor window on the Freedom of the Seas.

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Nepal jails Canadian former UN official for sexually abusing boys

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Aid worker Peter Dalglish, 62, sentenced for abusing two boys, aged 12 and 14

A former United Nations official has been jailed for sexually abusing children in Nepal after a trial that underscored the country’s growing appeal for foreign paedophiles.

Peter John Dalglish, 62, a high-profile humanitarian worker from Canada, was sentenced on Monday to two separate terms of nine years and seven years after being convicted last month.

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One of Italy’s top drug dealers arrested in Brazil after five years on the run

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Nicola Assisi, member of the organized crime group ’Ndrangheta was arrested with his son and await extradition to Italy

After five years on the run, one of Italy’s top cocaine dealers has been arrested in São Paulo along with his son.

Nicola Assisi, 61, a member of the Calabrian organised crime group ’Ndrangheta was arrested on Monday by Brazilian federal police, with his son Patrick, 36, who is also accused of drug trafficking.

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Bolsonaro minister who jailed Lula takes leave after leaks cast doubt on impartiality

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Sérgio Moro became a national hero for his role as a judge in the sweeping graft scandal Operation Car Wash

Brazil’s justice minister, Sérgio Moro, has been granted a leave of absence following a slew of damaging leaks that have cast serious doubts over his impartiality as a judge in a sweeping graft scandal.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, approved the break, from 15-19 July, for Moro to “deal with personal matters”, according to an official government document published on Monday.

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Italian court jails 24 over South American Operation Condor

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Dictatorships of six countries conspired to kidnap and kill political opponents in 1970s

An Italian court has sentenced 24 people to life in prison for their involvement in Operation Condor, in which the dictatorships of six South American countries conspired to kidnap and assassinate political opponents in each other’s territories.

Related: How an Argentinian man learned his 'father' may have killed his real parents

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Brazil mourns death of musician João Gilberto

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Bossa nova legend, 88, earns warm tributes – but not from president Jair Bolsonaro

Brazil is mourning the death of João Gilberto, one of the country’s greatest musicians and composers, a reclusive genius in a nation of extroverts whose work recalled happier, more optimistic times for a deeply divided nation.

Related: João Gilberto obituary

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An evening with João Gilberto, the bright wallflower of bossa nova

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A rare concert in 1998 was a chance to see the great musical pioneer emerge from hiding – and why his glorious talent lifted him beyond pop fads

In 1998, I had the rare experience of seeing bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto live in concert in San Francisco. Gilberto, who died on Saturday at age 88, was a famous recluse known both for his magical music-making as well as his stage fright. If you had the chance to watch him perform live, you seized the opportunity because it might never happen again. This is my account of that memorable evening.

Related: Brazilian musician João Gilberto dies aged 88

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‘Wonderful man and great Republican’: Chris Cline dies in helicopter crash

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  • Coal tycoon’s daughter and five others also killed
  • Donald Trump pays tribute to ‘businessman and energy expert’

The coal tycoon Chris Cline, a major Republican donor, has died in a helicopter crash outside Big Grand Cay, a string of islands he owned in the Bahamas.

In tweets, Donald Trump expressed sympathy for the loss of a “great businessman and energy expert” and said Cline was “a wonderful man and great Republican!”

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Canada pension fund quietly divests from US migrant detention firms

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  • CPPIB pulls investments in CoreCivic and Geo Group
  • Unannounced move follows Guardian report on holdings

One of Canada’s biggest pension funds has quietly divested from two private prison operators responsible for the detention of thousands of migrants along the US-Mexico border.

Late last year, the Guardian reported that the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) held nearly US$8m in stock in Geo Group and CoreCivic, which between them hold the lion’s share of contracts to manage Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facilities in the US.

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Brazil: calls grow for Bolsonaro ally to quit after ‘devastating’ report on leaks

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In new disclosures, conservative magazine Veja says Sergio Moro, who led Operation Car Wash, guilty of serious ‘irregularities’

Brazil’s justice minister Sérgio Moro is facing renewed pressure to resign after the country’s leading conservative magazine waded into a snowballing scandal over his role in a mammoth anti-corruption investigation that helped reshape South America’s political landscape.

Related: Outcry after reports Brazil plans to investigate Glenn Greenwald

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Venezuela: UN report accuses Maduro of ‘gross violations’ against dissenters

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In withering report, human rights chief details how Maduro’s security forces allegedly torture members of the opposition

The UN has issued a withering appraisal of the human rights situation in Venezuela, as horrific details emerged of the injuries inflicted on a navy captain allegedly tortured to death during a crackdown on alleged plotters against president Nicolás Maduro.

A report by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet – which follows a three-day mission to the South American country last month – accuses Maduro’s security forces of committing a series of “gross violations” against Venezuelan dissenters and urges him to disband a notorious special forces group blamed for a wave of politically-motivated killings.

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