Category Archives: Americas

Justin Trudeau’s future in doubt as party loses crucial Montreal election

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Victory by separatist Québécois candidate in once-safe Liberal seat puts pressure on Canadian PM to quit

Canada’s ruling Liberal party has lost a once-safe seat in Montreal, a result that is likely to put more pressure on the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to quit.

Elections Canada said that with 100% of the votes counted in the parliamentary constituency of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, the separatist Bloc Québécois candidate, Louis-Philippe Sauvé, had beaten the Liberal candidate, Laura Palestini, by a whisker: 28% to 27.2%. The New Democratic party (NDP) candidate received 26.1%.

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US rejects claims of CIA involvement in alleged plot to kill Maduro after Venezuela arrests six

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State department says allegations of American collusion are ‘categorically false’ as US navy member identified among foreign citizens detained

The US state department rejected wild allegations of CIA involvement in an alleged assassination plot against Nicolás Maduro after Venezuelan officials announced the arrest of three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech on Saturday.

The claims of a plot against Maduro – the Venezuelan president, whose recent re-election is contested – were made on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister. Cabello said the foreign citizens including a US navy member were part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government and kill several members of its leadership. In the television programme, Cabello showed images of rifles that he said were confiscated from some of the alleged plotters.

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‘Transformative, for better and for worse’: what’s the legacy of Peru’s Alberto Fujimori

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Despite his convictions for corruption and human rights abuses, many see the president who has died at 86 as the country’s greatest leader

At 11.45 on Thursday morning, six white-gloved pallbearers carried a coffin holding the body of the most divisive, beloved and reviled Peruvian politician of the last four decades. They passed the mourners, the cameras and the flag-topped lances of the Húsares de Junín cavalry regiment, and set it down in the hall of Lima’s brutalist culture ministry.

Behind the coffin, holding hands and dressed in black under a pale but warm spring sky, came its occupant’s eldest daughter and youngest son. A crowd of ministers, political allies and military top brass awaited them at the ministry.

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Canadian military admits new sleeping bags are not suited to Canadian winters

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Soldiers who used bags, which cost army C$34.8m, reportedly found ‘several critical issues … related to lack of warmth’

The Canadian military has admitted that new sleeping bags issued to troops last year were not suited to “typical Canadian winter conditions”.

According to a briefing note obtained by the CBC, the army issued the new sleeping bags in the autumn of last year in Alberta, where several hundred troops were preparing for a joint Canada-US exercise in Alaska.

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British Columbia shaken by messy election campaign putting progressive policies at risk

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Tumultuous campaign threatens to undo climate policies and Indigenous rights when voters go to polls in October

Canada’s westernmost province has been gripped by a chaotic provincial election campaign, rife with political backstabbing, abrupt resignations and unexpected allegiances.

And as an unpopular premier squares off against a climate crisis skeptic, the October vote could have profound consequences for British Columbia, a province seen as the vanguard for progressive climate policy.

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Peru declares three days of mourning after death of ex-president Alberto Fujimori

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Decision to honour authoritarian leader jailed for corruption and human rights abuses sparks mixed reactions

Peru has declared three days of national mourning after the death of its former strongman leader Alberto Fujimori, who died on Wednesday aged 86 and was the only Peruvian president to have been convicted and jailed for human rights crimes.

The government of Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, also decreed that flags be flown at half-mast in public and military buildings as Fujimori, who governed Peru throughout the 1990s, lies in state in the Museum of the Nation until the burial on Saturday.

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Mexican senate gives final approval to sweeping changes to judiciary

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Ruling party secures votes for overhaul, which has led to protests amid fears it could undermine rule of law

Mexico’s senate has given final approval to a sweeping overhaul of the judiciary, clearing the biggest hurdle for a controversial constitutional revision that will make all judges stand for election, a change that critics fear will politicise the judicial branch and threaten the democracy.

In a marathon session that ran for more than 12 hours, and had to be paused and relocated after protesters broke into the senate building, the ruling Morena party and allies clinched the final two-thirds vote needed to approve the changes, which have prompted protests, a strike by judicial workers and market volatility.

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Is it game over for Venezuela’s opposition as Maduro clings to power?

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Opposition leaders are adamant their campaign to remove Maduro is very much alive – even as their candidate widely believed to have won the vote has gone into exile in Spain

Against all the odds, they pulled off a once-inconceivable democratic victory against one of the world’s most unyielding authoritarian regimes. Even more astonishingly, Venezuela’s opposition activists managed to prove it, gathering a vast cache of voting data that offered concrete proof of their success.

Yet six weeks after Venezuela’s presidential election, it was the candidate widely believed to have won the vote, Edmundo González, who has flown into exile in Spain, while the apparent loser, Nicolás Maduro, looks set to keep power.

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Religious groups ‘spending billions to counter gender-equality education’

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Report reveals how US Christians, Catholic schools and Islamists fight sex education, LGBTQ+ and equal rights

Extreme religious groups and political parties are targeting schools around the world as part of a coordinated and well-funded attack on gender equality, according to a new report.

Well-known conservative organisations aim to restrict girls’ access to education, change what is on the curriculum, and influence educational laws and policies, according to Whose Hands on our Education, a report by the Overseas Development Institute.

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Brazilian president flies into Amazon amid alarm over droughts and wildfires

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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says Amazonia suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has flown into the Amazon amid growing alarm over the droughts and wildfires sweeping the rainforest region and others parts of Brazil.

Speaking during a visit to a riverside community near the city of Tefé, the Brazilian president said Amazonia was suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years. He said he had come to discover “what is going on with these mighty rivers” that in some places now resemble deserts.

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Sex ed Paraguay-style: condoms are unsafe, silence on LGBTQ+ people

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Country awash with teenage pregnancies to launch new school curriculum on sex – but is it worse than none at all?

Paraguay, which has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America, is about to approve its first national sex education curriculum.

But activists, students and parents have expressed concern about the new guidelines, which warn that condoms cannot be trusted, masturbation leads to loneliness and make no mention of LGBTQ+ people.

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Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report finds

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Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead

At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.

From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

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Anti-Maduro campaign ‘stronger than ever’ after Venezuelan election, says Machado

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Opposition leader María Corina Machado said exile of key figure Edmundo González ‘changes absolutely nothing’

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has insisted the campaign to end Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian rule is “stronger than ever”, but the banishing of one of its key figures to Spain has thrown many supporters off balance.

Edmundo González, who the US and other countries have recognised as the winner of Venezuela’s 28 July presidential election, flew into exile on Sunday after several weeks holed up in the Dutch ambassador’s residence in Caracas. An arrest warrant, seemingly designed to force the retired diplomat to flee, had been issued a week earlier.

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Ex-fashion mogul Peter Nygard sentenced to 11 years for sexual assault

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Judge says Nygard, 83, ‘used his wealth and power’ to commit four convicted assaults in Toronto

The former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted of four counts of sexual assault in attacks on women in his Toronto office building that in some cases date back for decades.

The 11-year sentence is reduced to take into account time he has already spent behind bars. Nygard has about 6.7 years left to serve and will be eligible for full parole after one-third of that.

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Weather tracker: Francine looking likely to be next Atlantic hurricane

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An area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico is moving landward, and is expected to bring intense rainfall

Francine could soon be the next to be ticked off the list of Atlantic hurricane storm names this week. On Friday, a broad area of low pressure emerged in the Gulf of Mexico, designated as Invest 91L. An “invest” – a shorthand for “investigative area” – refers to a region of atmospheric disturbance, characterised by low pressure and thunderstorms, and is closely monitored for its potential to evolve into a tropical cyclone.

Invest 91L is anticipated to encounter more favourable environmental conditions as it progresses northward over the coming days, meandering along the eastern coasts of Mexico and Texas. The National Hurricane Center has now labelled this as a potential tropical cyclone, and it is expected to reach hurricane status before reaching the Gulf coast of the US. It advises that hurricane and storm surge watches will probably be issued on Monday for coastal parts of Texas and Louisiana, with the impacts expected to be felt from Tuesday night.

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González is Venezuela’s ‘best hope for democracy’, says Blinken, as leader vows to fight on

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Edmundo González pledges to push for freedom and democracy for Venezuela after going into exile in Spain amid fears for his safety

The US secretary of state has said Edmundo González “remains the best hope for democracy” in Venezuela after the former presidential candidate went into exile in Spain.

Antony Blinken said on X on Sunday that González’s departure from Venezuela “is the direct result of the anti-democratic measures that [President] Nicolás Maduro has unleashed on the Venezuelan people”.

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Venezuela opposition leader Edmundo González lands in Spain after fleeing country

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Opponent of Nicolas Maduro – widely seen as legitimate election winner – seeks asylum in Spain after being accused of a series of crimes

The Venezuelan opposition leader and former presidential candidate, Edmundo González, has gone into exile in Spain, dealing a bitter blow to opponents of the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.

The Spanish government said on Sunday that a Spanish air force plane carrying González and his wife had landed at the Torrejón de Ardoz military base outside Madrid

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Venezuela revokes Brazil’s custody of Argentine embassy housing Maduro opponents

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Opponents holed up for months in the Argentine ambassador’s residence say the building has been surrounded by security forces

Venezuela’s government has said that Brazil can no longer represent Argentina’s diplomatic interests in the country, putting several anti-government opponents holed up for months in the Argentine ambassador’s residence seeking asylum at risk, as reports emerge that the embassy has been surrounded by security forces.

Venezuela’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had notified Brazil of its decision, which will take effect immediately. It said it was forced to take action based on what it called evidence – which it hasn’t shared – that those who sought refuge in Argentina’s diplomatic mission were conspiring to carry out “terrorist” acts.

Brazil said that it had received the communication “with surprise” and Argentina said shortly afterwards that it rejected the “unilateral” decision by Venezuela. Both countries urged the government of Nicolas Maduro to respect the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.

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Pakistani man in Canada charged with planned mass shooting of Jewish New Yorkers

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Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, arrested near US border after allegedly planning attack with undercover agents

A Pakistani man living in Canada is facing federal criminal charges for allegedly planning to carry out a mass shooting in New York against Jewish people on the anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, the US justice department announced on Friday.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested Wednesday in Canada and charged with attempting to provide material support as well as resources to a foreign terrorist organization – in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

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Signs of ice buildup on plane before Brazil crash, says early report

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Copilot recorded saying ‘a lot of icing’, indicating aircraft’s de-icing system may have failed before August crash, according to investigators

A preliminary report into the August crash of an airliner in Brazil has found signs of ice buildup on the plane but no definite cause for the accident.

The report – made public on Friday – pointed out that icing detectors had been activated on airline Voepass’s aircraft. And an official with the country’s Centre for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa) told a press conference that cockpit recordings showed the co-pilot said there was “a lot of icing” during the flight.

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