US man who planned 2020 Venezuela coup attempt arrested for arms smuggling

Jordan Goudreau, 48, was charged in New York for smuggling and conspiracy alongside partner Yacsy Álvarez

A former US Green Beret who, in 2020, organized a failed crossborder raid of Venezuelan army deserters to remove President Nicolás Maduro has been arrested in New York on federal arms smuggling charges.

A federal indictment unsealed this week in Tampa, Florida, accuses Jordan Goudreau and a Venezuelan partner, Yacsy Álvarez, of violating US arms control laws when they allegedly assembled and sent to Colombia AR-styled weapons, ammo, night vision goggles and other defense equipment requiring a US export license.

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Colombian guerrillas withdraw threat to disrupt UN biodiversity summit

Central General Staff militant group previously said Cop16 event scheduled for October in Cali ‘would fail’

A dissident rebel group has backed down from its threat to disrupt the UN biodiversity summit in Colombia later this year.

The Central General Staff (EMC), a guerrilla faction that rejected the country’s 2016 peace agreement, said on Wednesday it would order its militants not to target the Cop16 negotiations that are due to begin in Cali in October.

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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Venezuela protesters target Hugo Chávez statues amid disputed election

Opposition supporters shout government ‘is going to fall’ while tearing down monuments of Maduro’s mentor

As protests over Venezuela’s disputed presidential election spread across the country, opposition supporters have focused their fury on president Nicolás Maduro’s predecessor and political mentor, Hugo Chávez.

At least seven statues of the former leader have been attacked, some beheaded with sledgehammers, and some completely torn down.

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Son of El Chapo pleads not guilty in Chicago as mystery cloaks cartel arrests

Officials have mixed accounts around arrest of Sinaloa co-founder El Mayo after Guzmán López turned himself in

Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in Chicago, days after his arrest in a dramatic operation in which he may have delivered his father’s former business partner to US authorities.

Guzmán López, 38, was detained on Thursday alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the other co-founder of one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups, after touching down in a small plane in El Paso, Texas.

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Maduro vows crackdown on Venezuela election protests after victory claim

Authoritarian leader vows to squash what he calls ‘violent counter-revolution’ as more than 700 arrests are made

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have returned to Venezuela’s streets to decry Nicolás Maduro’s alleged attempt to steal Sunday’s election, as the country’s authoritarian leader vowed to squash what he called “a violent counter-revolution” and more than 700 arrests were made.

Maduro’s disputed claim to have won the vote has plunged the South American country into another chapter of unrest and uncertainty which has spooked regional governments.

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Maduro’s exit ‘irreversible’, says Venezuela opposition leader, as election protests grow

María Corina Machado says president should understand he lost vote, amid international doubts over victory claim

The opposition leader battling to bring the curtain down on Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime has urged the Venezuelan strongman to accept that his exit from power is inevitable. The call came as thousands of protesters hit the streets to repudiate Maduro’s disputed claim to have won a third term in power.

Venezuela’s incumbent president was officially proclaimed the victor of Sunday’s election by the government-controlled electoral authority on Monday morning.

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More than 500 Mexicans flee to Guatemala to escape cartel violence in Chiapas

Chiapas, once a haven for Guatemalans fleeing genocide, sees citizens crossing border to escape tyranny of cartels

The Mexican state of Chiapas was once a haven for Guatemalans fleeing genocide at home, but this historical relationship has recently flipped, with hundreds of Mexicans crossing the border to escape the violent tyranny of organised crime groups.

Entire communities emptied out last week as more than 500 men, women, children and the elderly fled with what they could carry and walked across the border, citing food shortages and the conflicts between criminal groups pressing in ever closer on their homes.

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Venezuela on a knife-edge as opposition accuses Maduro of rigging election

Protests seen around country after results appear to dash opposition hopes of ending quarter century of chavista rule

Nicolás Maduro’s claim of victory in Venezuela’s presidential election has brought the South American country to a hazardous standoff, with his thwarted opponents accusing him of rigging the election to remain in power, and many leaders in the region and beyond questioning the veracity and transparency of the vote.

Late on Monday, street protests were reported across the capital and all around the country, including in the states of Falcón, where demonstrators were filmed tearing down a statue of Hugo Chávez, and Portuguesa, where footage showed a group vandalizing a propaganda billboard featuring a photograph of Maduro and a slogan promising “More Changes and Transformation”.

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Mexico president asks cartels not to fight each other after arrest of drug lords

Andrés Manuel López Obrador makes unusual public appeal after arrest of top leaders of Sinaloa cartel

Mexico’s president has taken the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other following last week’s detention of the top Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily press briefing that he trusted that drug traffickers knew they would only suffer if they stepped up the internal wars that already plague the Sinaloa cartel.

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Venezuela presidential election: result met with suspicion abroad – as it happened

Washington says it has ‘serious concerns’ about result, while president of Uruguay says it is open secret Maduro would win ‘whatever real results were’

Among the many international figures weighing in on the situation in Venezuela was the US vice president, Kamala Harris.

“The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected. Despite the many challenges, we will continue to work toward a more democratic, prosperous, and secure future for the people of Venezuela,” she said.

More than a thousand international observers have taken part in the Venezuelan election. The people have spoken and their will should be respected. The right only goes along with democracy when it wins and that is unacceptable.

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‘Hard to believe’: Venezuela election result met with suspicion abroad

Nicolás Maduro faces calls to publish transparent breakdown of vote but allies hail his apparent victory

Nicolás Maduro’s apparent re-election as Venezuela’s president has been met with scepticism, suspicion and calls for a transparent and detailed breakdown of the vote in Sunday’s controversial poll.

Although the results, released by the government-controlled electoral authority, were immediately hailed by Maduro’s allies in Latin America, they drew a guarded and often accusatory response from others in the region and farther afield.

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Venezuela election: Maduro declared winner by government-controlled authority

Result with 80% of votes is immediately challenged by opposition and several governments

Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority – a result that appeared to dash opposition hopes of ending his authoritarian, socialist rule. It was immediately challenged by rivals and several governments in the region and beyond.

After a six-hour delay in releasing the results of Sunday’s poll prompted international concern, Venezuela’s electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.

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Venezuela votes in election that could end 25 years of socialist rule

Edmundo González Urrutia could upset Nicolás Maduro’s run for a third term – but several obstacles can prevent a regime change

Venezuelans go to the polls on Sunday against a backdrop of hope and fear in a presidential election that could end 25 years of socialist rule – if a free and fair vote is allowed.

Opinion polls suggest that the president Nicolás Maduro, 61, who is seeking his third term, could be defeated by the opposition coalition candidate, retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, 74.

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Mexico president calls for ‘transparency’ amid secrecy over Sinaloa cartel arrests

US announces arrest of two leaders of organised crime group as Mexican authorities say they were in the dark

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has called for “transparency” after the sudden and secretive arrests by US authorities of two top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, 76, founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, and has been a top target of US law enforcement for decades, with a $15m bounty on his head.

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Canada owes First Nations billions after making ‘mockery’ of treaty deal, top court rules

Court urges federal and Ontario governments to make payouts after ‘dishonourably’ neglecting 174-year-old deal

An “egregious” refusal by successive Canadian governments to honor a key treaty signed with Indigenous nations made a “mockery” of the deal and deprived generations of fair compensation for their resources, Canada’s top court has ruled.

But while the closely watched decision will likely yield billions in payouts, First Nation chiefs say the ruling adds yet another hurdle in the multi-decade battle for justice.

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Alberta premier fights tears over Canada wildfires despite climate crisis denial

Danielle Smith and her government’s refusal to combat global heating is said to have made blazes more intense

When Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta, began her grim update about the wildfire damage to Jasper, the famed mountain resort in the Canadian Rockies, her voice slipped and she held back tears.

Hours earlier, a fast-moving wildfire tore through the community, incinerating homes, businesses and historic buildings. She praised the “true heroism” of fire crews who had rushed in to save Jasper, only to be pulled back when confronted by a 400ft wall of flames. She spoke about the profound meaning and “magic” of the national park.

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Top leaders of powerful Sinaloa drug cartel arrested in Texas

Biden praises law enforcement for fentanyl charges against members of ‘one of the deadliest enterprises in the world’

The US justice department has arrested two leaders of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including the cartel’s co-founder, for leading deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced the charges against cartel leaders Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo”, one of the group’s co-founders, and Joaquin Guzmán. Both men face several charges in the United States for allegedly leading the cartel’s criminal operations.

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Canadian Rockies town Jasper badly damaged by fast-moving wildfire

More than 25,000 residents and tourists evacuated from national park region as firefighters forced into a retreat

A fast-moving wildfire has destroyed parts of Jasper, the old mountain town in the Canadian Rockies, with the mayor warning the damage was “beyond description and comprehension”. The blaze had forced more than 25,000 people to flee earlier this week.

Jasper national park officials said the fire entered the southern edge of the town on Wednesday evening. But, given the speed and intensity of the blaze, fire crews working to protect key infrastructure were ordered to retreat.

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Brazilian rancher ordered to pay $50m for damage to Amazon

Brazil court freezes assets of Dirceu Kruger to pay climate compensation for illegal deforestation

A Brazilian cattle rancher has been ordered to pay more than $50m (£39m) for destroying part of the Amazon rainforest and ordered to restore the precious carbon sink.

Last week, a federal court in Brazil froze the assets of Dirceu Kruger to pay compensation for the damage he had caused to the climate through illegal deforestation. The case was brought by Brazil’s attorney general’s office, representing the Brazilian institute of environment and renewable natural resources (Ibama). It is the largest civil case brought for climate crimes in Brazil to date and the start of a legal push to repair and deter damage to the rainforest.

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Ten people drown in Darién Gap while trying to cross swollen river

People were probably on their way to US, Panama’s border force says, highlighting perils of jungle

Ten people have drowned in a swollen river while trying to cross a lawless stretch of jungle connecting Colombia with Panama, highlighting the continuing perils of the Darién Gap despite efforts to stop irregular migration through the region.

The 10 people, whose nationality has not yet been identified, were probably on their way to the US when they were swept away by strong currents, Panama’s border force said in a statement. Their bodies were found in a river close to the Indigenous community of Carreto on the Caribbean coast.

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