Category Archives: Americas

El Chapo trial: ex-bodyguard says he watched boss bury victim alive

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Guzmán alleged to have committed three murders, marking first time in three-month trial he has been personally accused

A former bodyguard for the accused Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has told a court that he watched his boss personally carry out three murders, including one in which the victim was buried alive.

The killings described by Isaías Valdéz Ríos in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, were the first in the three-month-old trial to be attributed to Guzmán himself, rather than underlings following his orders.

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Brazil’s sole openly gay congressman leaves country after death threats

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Jean Wyllys said he was currently outside of the country and had no plans to return after a growing number of threats in past year

Brazil’s first and only openly gay congressman has announced that he is leaving his job – and the country – after receiving death threats.

In a newspaper interview on Thursday, Jean Wyllys said he was currently outside of Brazil and had no plans to return after a growing number of threats over the past year.

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Venezuela the day after: Caracas returns to grind of slow-burn crisis

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Constitutional crisis takes a back seat to half-empty schools, sparsely stocked shops and grinding commutes across Caracas

Thursday morning in Caracas dawned much like any other day in the slow decline of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution: sparsely stocked shops were open, commuters boarded decaying metro trains and clapped-out buses to get to work.

Schools were half-empty, buses were harder to find, but apart from that, the capital was mostly calm, and there was little indication of the previous day’s extraordinary events – or that two men now claim to be the country’s rightful ruler.

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Canada: mother and uncle accused of ‘honor killing’ extradited to India

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Uncle and mother, both Canadian citizens of Indian origin, accused by Indian authorities of killing daughter in 2000

Canada has extradited the mother and uncle of a woman killed 19 years ago to face justice in India for their alleged roles in her honor killing.

The body of Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu was found with her throat slit in June 2000 in Punjab state. She was 25 at the time of her death.

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Zombie clunkers: has your local bus been resurrected in Guatemala?

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Phased out vehicles often end up back in use in developing countries – a form of dumping with serious environmental consequences

In a sparsely furnished office overlooking dozens of buses at the Zone 21 depot in Guatemala City, Jorge Castro flips through photographs on his mobile phone. He settles on one.

“There’s the bus when I bought it in Maryland,” he says proudly. It is a blue and white bus emblazoned with the words “Ride On”, the name of Montgomery County’s public transit system.

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Venezuela: Trump recognises opposition leader as president

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  • Juan Guaidó also recognised by Canada, Brazil and Argentina
  • Defiant Maduro urges supporters to ‘resist at all costs’

Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó has declared himself the interim president, in a dramatic escalation of efforts to force out Nicolás Maduro, who has overseen the country’s slide into authoritarianism and economic ruin.

Guaidó was quickly recognised by the US, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and other US allies in the Americas, while the European Union said the voice of the people “cannot be ignored”.

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Venezuela protests as two leaders vie to be president – in pictures

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Venezuela has been thrown into turmoil after opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the interim president, challenging president Nicolás Maduro. Guaidó has been recognised by the US, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and other US allies in the Americas, with Donald Trump warning that ‘all options are on the table’ if Maduro responded with force against the opposition

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Trump’s remarks could stymie US extradition of Huawei CFO from Canada

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Canada’s ambassador to China said Meng Wanzhou had ‘good arguments on her side’, in part because of Trump’s remarks

US efforts to extradite a Chinese telecoms executive from Canada may have been stymied by remarks on the case made by Donald trump, according to Canada’s top diplomat in Beijing.

Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was detained at the request of the US on 1 December in Vancouver, over alleged violations of US sanctions on Iran. She is currently under house arrest and the US justice department has until 30 January to file a formal extradition request.

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El Chapo’s wife aided in 2015 prison break, cartel member testifies

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Dámaso López Núñez told the jury at Guzmán’s trial that Emma Coronel Aispuro ‘was giving us his orders’

The wife of the Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán played a key role in his infamous 2015 escape from prison through a tunnel dug into the shower of his cell, one of Guzmán’s top lieutenants told a court in New York.

Dámaso López Núñez told the jury at Guzmán’s trial that Emma Coronel Aispuro helped her husband trade messages with his sons and others who coordinated the breakout at Altiplano prison in central Mexico.

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Venezuela crisis: what happens now after two men have claimed to be president?

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The US and other states rushed to recognise Juan Guaidó but the path to dislodging the country’s leftwing leader is unclear

Venezuela’s political crisis was turned on its head on Wednesday as a succession of world powers declared they were recognizing the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the South American country’s rightful interim president.

“The citizens of Venezuela have suffered for too long at the hands of the illegitimate Maduro regime,” Donald Trump tweeted as he announced what some believe could prove a game-changing decision.

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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declares himself interim president – video

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Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has declared himself the country's interim president in a dramatic escalation of efforts to force out Nicolás Maduro, who has overseen the country’s slide into authoritarianism and economic ruin

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Brazil’s government reveals plans to privatize key shipping route

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Jair Bolsonaro plans to overhaul country’s transportation infrastructure despite concerns of increased deforestation on the Trans-Amazonian highway

Brazil’s new government has unveiled plans to privatize the Trans-Amazonian Highway, in a fresh attempt to complete – and fully pave – the dictatorship-era road which has already been blamed for extensive deforestation.

The government also plans to sell to investors a concession to run BR-163, a key northern route for shipping Brazilian grains, adding it along with the Trans-Amazonian to a priority list for privatization at a meeting next month, infrastructure minister Tarcisio Freitas told Reuters in an interview.

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How can we take power away from criminal gangs? Legalise drugs | Martin Drewry

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Prohibition makes our world a more dangerous place, trapping people in poverty

I have spoken out on many issues during my career, but there is one that leaders in poorer countries passionately lobby me to campaign on: the prohibition of drugs.

The “war on drugs” is harming the most vulnerable and criminalising poverty. It is not a war on drugs – despite decades of prohibition, drug production and consumption is on the increase globally – it is a war on the poor. Prohibition damages people and the planet.

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Ecuador targets Venezuelan migrants after woman’s death

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Crackdown announced amid outrage over killing as Venezuelan man is held

Ecuador has launched a crackdown on Venezuelan migrants after a pregnant Ecuadorian woman was killed on Saturday evening.

The police and Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, have said that that Diana Carolina Ramírez’s killer was her boyfriend, a Venezuelan immigrant. His name was given as Yordy Rafael LG, who was said to be in custody.

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A day with the men about to make it across the US border – at any cost

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Central American migrants escaping poverty and violence in their hometowns find crossing legally is a slow and difficult process

At the age of 14, Jonathan Levit was given an order by the infamously brutal Mara Salvatrucha gang in his native Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras: to kill a friend he had known throughout childhood – “like a brother, all my life”.

Jonathan had, like almost every child in the city of Tela’s terrifying barrio of Colonia 15 de Septiembre, grown up in the gang’s shadow; there was no avoiding it, especially if you were partial to a smoke, as he was. And now the time had come for him to execute “a mission” for what is also called MS-13 – the gang which, Jonathan says, “doesn’t just run Colonia 15, they almost run Honduras”.

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Former China envoys call on Xi Jinping to release two detained Canadians

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Open letter says the arrests mean diplomats are more cautious about work in China

More than 140 former diplomats and leading China experts have called on Xi Jinping to release two Canadian citizens detained last month as a diplomatic stand-off between Ottawa and Beijing escalates.

In an open letter Chinese president, former envoys to China from Canada, the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, Sweden and Mexico described how the arrests of Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, have sent a chill through the diplomatic community.

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Nicaraguan journalist flees to Costa Rica after police raid newsroom

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Carlos Fernando Chamorro goes into exile citing President Ortega’s media crackdown

Nicaragua’s best-known journalist has gone into exile after armed police raided and ransacked his newsroom in what experts called the latest chapter of the country’s slide into autocracy under President Daniel Ortega.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of Confidencial, a combative newsletter and website and a member of one of Nicaragua’s most influential families, announced his decision on Sunday.

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Online fund for unpaid Fyre festival staff raises tens of thousands

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GoFundMe receives almost $80,000 for Bahamian workers who lost out in festival scam

Tens of thousands of pounds have been raised for Bahamian restaurant workers whose life savings were “wiped out” in a multimillion-pound fraud by organisers of the Fyre festival.

Maryann Rolle said her team worked round the clock preparing 1,000 meals a day for festival staff but went unpaid when it imploded spectacularly in April 2017.

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A naked escape and bribed presidents: El Chapo trial’s shocking testimony

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A New York court has heard how the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán eluded capture with his mistress while paying millions to politicians and police

That Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán – on trial in New York for heading the world’s biggest drug cartel – escaped a raid through a tunnel beneath his bath is legend; what is not known is that he did so stark naked with the mistress with whom he was abed when the Mexican marines arrived.

That Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel bribed politicians and senior military officers is presumed by most Mexicans; that he bribed presidents would surprise few – what we had not heard is that he allegedly haggled down a presidential demand for $250m protection money to $100m.

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