Category Archives: Americas

Venezuela tumbles deeper into dictatorship with Nicolás Maduro set to extend 12-year rule

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Global democratic leaders pledge a boycott as exiled opposition leader vows to return to challenge ceremony

Venezuela’s tumble into authoritarianism is poised to enter an even harsher new phase this week with Nicolás Maduro set to extend his 12-year rule despite widespread suspicions that he stole last year’s presidential election.

The man widely believed to have won that vote – retired diplomat Edmundo González – fled abroad to escape a draconian post-election crackdown but has vowed to return home to challenge Maduro’s planned inauguration on Friday.

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Brazil says Meta getting rid of factcheckers is ‘bad for democracy’

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Brazilian officials also ask tech giant to clarify whether it intends to implement changes in country within 30 days

The decision by the social media giant Meta to end factchecking in the United States is “bad for democracy”, Brazil’s newly appointed communication minister, Sidonio Palmeira, said on Wednesday.

Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stunned many with his announcement on Tuesday that he was pulling the plug on factchecking at Facebook and Instagram in the US, citing concerns about political bias.

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‘América Mexicana’: Mexico’s president responds to Trump with renaming of her own

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Claudia Sheinbaum joked about renaming the entire continent in retort to Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ comments

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, has responded to Donald Trump’s proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America with a counter-proposal to rename North America.

Standing before a global map in her daily press briefing, Sheinbaum proposed dryly that the continent should be known as “América Mexicana”, or “Mexican America”, because an 1814 founding document that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way.

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Awards success of cartel boss musical Emilia Pérez prompts outrage in Mexico

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The film about Mexico has just one main actor who is Mexican, and Mexicans say it’s heavy with stereotypes and treats violence with frivolity

A musical about a Mexican cartel boss who fakes their death, transitions and is reborn as a heroine searching for the forcibly disappeared is sweeping international film awards, but prompted amusement and outrage in Mexico.

Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard, has been largely praised by international critics, though some noted it risked trivialising extremely sensitive issues. It scooped the jury prize at Cannes before winning four Golden Globes on Sunday, including those for best musical or comedy and best non-English language film.

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Death toll of Haiti gang violence rose to 5,600 in 2024, UN says

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UN Human Rights Office adds that 2,200 were injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped as international mission struggles

More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year, the UN has said, as an international mission led by Kenya struggles to contain rampant gang violence.

The number of killings increased by more than 20% compared with 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office. More than 2,200 people were reported injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped, it said.

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Justin Trudeau’s reluctant departure will leave his Liberal party in freefall

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His protracted refusal to quit as PM could even result in the demise of Canada’s ‘natural governing party’

Justin Trudeau’s decision to resign as prime minister has jolted his ailing Liberal party, kicking off a leadership race that could determine the future – or the demise – of Canada’s “natural governing party”.

On a frigid Monday morning, Trudeau said that while “every bone in my body tells me to fight”, a procedural standstill in parliament, as well as his dismal polling numbers, meant there was no path forward to contest a fourth term as leader.

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Grieving killer whale who carried calf’s body spotted again with dead baby

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Experts say sighting of orca in Puget Sound with second deceased calf is ‘devastating’ for ailing population

An apparently grieving killer whale who swam more than 1,000 miles pushing the body of her dead newborn has lost another calf and is again carrying the body, a development researchers say is a “devastating” loss for the ailing population.

The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the orca, known as Tahlequah, or J35, was spotted in the Puget Sound area with her deceased calf.

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Top Venezuelan pianist urges music world to snub youth orchestra linked to Maduro

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Gabriela Montero asks promoters to cut ties with El Sistema on 2025 Europe tour, after alleged theft of election

One of Venezuela’s most celebrated musicians, the pianist Gabriela Montero, has called on concert halls and music promoters to cut ties with her country’s world-renowned youth orchestra as a result of Nicolás Maduro’s alleged theft of this year’s presidential election.

The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSOV), which has close ties to Maduro’s administration, is scheduled to perform at some of Europe’s most prestigious classical music venues in January to mark the 50th anniversary of Venezuela’s world-famous music training programme, El Sistema.

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Ecuador confirms incinerated bodies belong to missing ‘Guayaquil Four’ boys

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Sixteen air force personnel who apprehended boys being held in custody as inquiry into deaths continues

Ecuador’s attorney general’s office has confirmed that incinerated bodies found on Christmas Eve belong to the four children missing since early December, in a case posing a severe challenge to President Daniel Noboa’s “war on drugs”.

The four boys – all black, aged between 11 and 15, and residents of Las Malvinas, a poor area in the country’s largest city, Guayaquil – were returning from a football game on 8 December when they were apprehended by 16 air force soldiers.

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Havana syndrome patients reportedly promised healthcare that never came

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Letter allegedly written by US official shows contradictions in how government handled mysterious health incidents

A leaked letter purportedly written by a senior US military official and published on social media on Monday highlights stark contradictions in the government’s approach to victims of Havana syndrome – a mysterious series of health incidents affecting personnel at embassies and consulates overseas.

The letter, dated 24 March 2024 and signed by air force Brig Gen Shannon O’Harren, reassures victims of the “anomalous health incidents” (AHIs) that the defense department believed that their experiences and symptoms were real while promising them quality healthcare that never came.

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Venezuelan opposition members holed up in Argentine embassy call it ‘prison’

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Diplomatic residence, where five members have been staying since March, has had power cut for more than a month

Five Venezuelan opposition members taking refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas to avoid arrest say it has become a “prison”.

The residence has been without power for more than a month, Magalli Meda, adviser to opposition leader María Corina Machado, said on X.

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‘Guayaquil Four’ boys missing in Ecuador pose challenge to president

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Protests have erupted nationwide after disappearance of boys not seen since they were approached by soldiers

The disappearance of four boys in Ecuador after they came into contact with the armed forces is posing a severe challenge to President Daniel Noboa’s “war on drugs”.

The four – all black, aged between 11 and 15, and residents of Las Malvinas, a poor area in the country’s largest city, Guayaquil – were returning from a football game near their homes on 8 December when 16 air force soldiers approached them.

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Trump tells 37 people on death row with commuted sentences to ‘go to hell’

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On Truth Social, president-elect also lashes out at Chinese troops in Panama Canal and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Donald Trump has told 37 people on death row who had their sentences commuted by Joe Biden to “go to hell” in a lacerating Christmas Day social media post.

The president-elect – long a vocal advocate of capital punishment – lashed out at Biden’s decision on his Truth Social platform, after wishing a merry Christmas to political opponents he addressed as “Radical Left Lunatics”.

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Trump nominates Miami-Dade official as Panama ambassador amid canal row

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Announcement comes as Trump has threatened to reassert control over canal, which US handed to Panama in 1999

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the Miami-Dade county commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to serve as ambassador to Panama.

Trump described Cabrera as “a fierce fighter for America First principles” who he said has been instrumental in driving economic growth and fostering international partnerships.

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Latin America’s rise in tuberculosis linked to imprisonment rates

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Study warns region’s exponential rise in incarceration is fuelling the disease, with cases increasing by 19% between 2015 and 2022

High incarceration rates in Latin America – the region with the world’s fastest-growing prison population – are exacerbating tuberculosis in a region that is bucking the global trend for falling incidents of the disease, experts have warned.

A study published in The Lancet Public Health journal has estimated that, contrary to previous assumptions, HIV/Aids is not the primary risk factor for tuberculosis in the region – as it remains in Africa, for example – but rather imprisonments.

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Two reporters and a police officer killed in shooting at Haiti hospital reopening

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Gunmen target press conference at Haiti’s largest public hospital after street gangs forced its closure earlier this year

Two reporters and a police officer were killed and others injured on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on a group of journalists who gathered for a government press conference scheduled to announce the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital.

Street gangs forced the closure of the State University of Haiti hospital early this year and authorities had pledged to reopen the facility in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Christmas Eve. But as journalists gathered to cover the event, the gunmen opened fire.

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Ex-drug lord Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia after 20 years in US prisons

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Victims of Medellín cartel demand justice as some express dismay former mob boss faces no charges in Colombia

The return of the former drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia following his deportation from the United States has reopened old wounds among victims of the Medellín cartel, with some expressing dismay at the Colombian authorities’ decision to let Ochoa walk free.

Some of the cartel victims said they were hoping the former drug lord will at least cooperate with ongoing efforts by human rights groups to investigate one of the most violent periods of Colombia’s history and demanded that Colombian prosecutors also take Ochoa in for questioning.

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El Salvador overturns metals mining ban, defying environmental groups

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President Nayib Bukele pushed for the legislation that will grant government sole authority over mining activities

El Salvador’s legislature has overturned a seven-year-old ban on metals mining, a move that the country’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, had pushed for to boost economic growth, but that environmental groups had opposed.

El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban all forms of metals mining in 2017. Bukele, who took office in 2019, has called the ban absurd.

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Mexico announces record drug seizure one week after Trump threatens tariffs

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Soldiers and marines discover drugs in Sinaloa, while separately authorities arrest more than 5,200 migrants

Mexican security forces have impounded more than a ton of fentanyl pills in what officials have called the biggest seizure of the synthetic opioid in the country’s history.

Soldiers and marines found the fentanyl at two properties in the northern state of Sinaloa, late on Tuesday – exactly a week after Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless the two neighbouring countries cracked down on the flow of immigrants and drugs across their borders with the US.

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Mexico says Canada wishes it had its ‘cultural riches’ amid tariffs feud

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Leaders cast the other as ill-prepared after Trump threatens to apply 25% taxes on goods from both countries

Mexico’s president has said Canadians “could only wish they had the cultural riches” of her country as tensions mount between the two nations, caught in a feud over tariffs and trade exacerbated by Donald Trump.

The US president-elect threatened in a social media post last week to apply devastating levies of 25% on all goods and services from both countries, and to keep them in place until “such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!”

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