Category Archives: Americas

Peru president Dina Boluarte under pressure amid ‘Rolexgate’ scandal

Posted on by

President under investigation over allegedly owning jewellery worth $500,000 despite earning a monthly salary of $3,320

Peru’s first female president, Dina Boluarte, is embroiled in a scandal over her alleged possession of a collection of Rolex watches and luxury jewellery that has put her at the centre of a corruption investigation.

The unpopular leader shook up her cabinet on Monday, swearing in six new ministers, after a rash of resignations following reports that she owned jewellery worth £400,000 ($502,700) despite earning a monthly presidential salary of around $3,320.

Continue reading...

Let the music play: Mexico beach bands victorious after noise complaints

Posted on by

Hotel owner in Mazatlán had suggested limiting the time or places where the bands could play after complaints from foreign tourists

Bands who play the thumping tuba-and-drums songs of northern Mexico on beaches in the resort city of Mazatlán appear to have emerged victorious this week after noise complaints had threatened to silence them.

But anybody who planned to witness the 8 April eclipse in a moment of awed silence will likely be disappointed. Mazatlán, on the Pacific coast, will be first place in North America where the path of totality will be visible.

Continue reading...

Venezuela arrests YouTuber for ‘terrorism’ amid pre-election crackdown

Posted on by

Detention of influencer Oscar Alejandro Pérez at Caracas airport en route to southern national park raises free speech concerns

A popular Venezuelan YouTuber has been arrested in Caracas on terrorism charges as President Nicolás Maduro’s government steps up its crackdown on free speech ahead of upcoming elections.

Oscar Alejandro Pérez was detained in the capital’s main airport on Sunday by police on accusations of terrorism, his family said.

Continue reading...

Two men in Haiti suspected of buying weapons for gangs lynched by mob

Posted on by

Killings underscore how outnumbered police are in Haiti after months of attacks and kidnappings by gangs

Two men in Haiti were hacked to death by a mob who thought they were buying weapons for gangs, police said Saturday.

Police confirmed the crowd snatched the men from police custody after they were found with about $20,000 (£16,000) and the equivalent of about $43,000 in Haitian cash in their car, along with two pistols and a box of ammunition.

Continue reading...

Home of Peru’s president raided in search of luxury watches

Posted on by

The government criticised the move, with the country’s prime minister calling it ‘disproportionate and unconstitutional’

Peru’s government on Saturday criticised the raid on the home of its president, Dina Boluarte, as part of inquiries into possible illicit enrichment and failure to declare ownership of luxury watches as “disproportionate and unconstitutional”.

Police broke down the door of Boluarte’s residence early on Saturday morning, television images showed, apparently after calls by officials to allow them access to search for evidence went unanswered.

Continue reading...

Niagara region declares emergency to prepare for eclipse viewers

Posted on by

Total solar eclipse on 8 April will be first to touch province since 1979, and Niagara Falls is declared one of the best places to view

The region of Canada surrounding the city that contains a side of – and shares a name with – Niagara Falls has declared a state of emergency as it prepares to welcome up to a million visitors for the solar eclipse in early April.

The total solar eclipse on 8 April will be the first to touch the province since 1979, and Niagara Falls was declared by National Geographic to be one of the best places to see it.

Continue reading...

Lula dismays relatives of dictatorship’s victims by ignoring coup anniversary

Posted on by

Brazil’s president has nixed commemorations of the 1964 coup, possibly to avoid irking the military as senior officers facing jail for allegedly conspiring to stop Lula taking power after 2022 election

Relatives of the victims of Brazil’s brutal two-decade dictatorship have voiced anger and dismay over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s reported decision to block official remembrance events marking the 60th anniversary of the 1964 military coup d’état.

Activists had hoped the leftist’s government would mark the 31 March 2024 anniversary of that power-grab with a series of memorials honouring the thousands who were killed, disappeared or tortured by the 1964-85 regime.

Continue reading...

Bolivian Indigenous groups assert claim to treasure of ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’

Posted on by

Descendants of miners who dug up gold, silver and emeralds worth billions call on Colombia to halt plan to lift cargo

Indigenous communities in Bolivia have objected to Colombia’s plans to recover the remains of an 18th-century galleon believed to be carrying gold, silver and emeralds worth billions, calling on Spain and Unesco to step in and halt the project.

Colombia hopes to begin recovering artefacts from the wreck of the San José in the coming months but the Caranga, Chicha and Killaka peoples in Bolivia propose that the galleon and its contents should be considered “common and shared patrimony”.

Continue reading...

Macron rekindles France-Brazil relationship in widely memed Lula visit

Posted on by

Photos of French president’s three-day trip to Brazil to reaffirm countries’ partnership delight internet observers

If the official photos are anything to go by, Emmanuel Macron’s three-day trip to Brazil has been more romantic getaway than international diplomacy.

The French president, who ended his tour of the South American country on Thursday with a state visit to the capital, Brasília, prompted online hilarity after the publication of photos showing him being particularly chummy with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Continue reading...

‘Potentially serious impropriety’: Labour questions Johnson’s Venezuela meeting

Posted on by

Former PM’s meeting with President Maduro, in capacity as hedge fund consultant, is under further scrutiny

Labour is demanding answers over what the party said was “potentially serious impropriety” by Boris Johnson after it emerged that the former prime minister met the Venezuelan president in his role as a consultant for a hedge fund.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said in a letter to Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister and Cabinet Office minister, that there were concerns that Johnson may have breached the ministerial code.

Continue reading...

Ontario moves to allow use of Indigenous languages in legislature

Posted on by

‘Momentous change’ will permit lawmakers in Canadian province to address chamber in ‘first languages’

Lawmakers in Ontario will now be able to address the province’s legislature using Indigenous languages, in a “momentous change” that belatedly recognizes the “first languages” of the region.

The Ontario government house leader, Paul Calandra, this week moved to amend a standing order that previously required lawmakers to use either English or French. Following a vote, that order now allows for an “Indigenous language spoken in Canada” to be used when addressing the speaker or chamber.

Continue reading...

Canada school boards accuse social media firms of ‘rewiring’ how kids think

Posted on by

District education authorities launch multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Meta, Snap Inc and ByteDance

Four of Canada’s largest school boards have launched a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the social media companies Meta, Snap Inc and ByteDance, accusing them of acting in a “high-handed, reckless, malicious, and reprehensible manner” with products the boards claim harm student learning and “rewire” how children think.

The four district boards – Ottawa-Carleton, Toronto, Peel and Toronto Catholic – filed four separate statements of claim in Ontario’s superior court of justice on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Bernie Moreno says he fled socialism in Colombia for the US in 1971. What does history say?

Posted on by

The Republican challenger to Democrat Sherrod Brown for US Senate in Ohio has made dubious claims in his campaign

Bernie Moreno, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio who expected to mount a stern challenge to Sherrod Brown, the incumbent leftwing Democrat, says his family fled socialism when they came to the US from Colombia in 1971, when he was four years old.

Though such statements formed a central part of Moreno’s campaign message on his way to securing the Republican nomination with support from Donald Trump, they do not withstand historical scrutiny.

Continue reading...

‘It’s mission impossible’: fear grows in Kenya over plan to deploy police to Haiti

Posted on by

Deal to send hundreds of officers to Caribbean country amid spiraling gang violence is facing intense public and legal scrutiny

Haiti’s raging gang insurrection has prompted growing concern in Kenya over plans to deploy hundreds of paramilitary police officers from the East African country on a UN-backed multinational mission to counter the violence.

“If they come back in body bags, what will [Kenyan President William Ruto] tell the nation?” said Ekuru Aukot, leader of the opposition Thirdway Alliance, who last year filed a legal challenge against the deployment.

Continue reading...

How gangs took control of Haiti – podcast

Posted on by

Haiti has erupted into violence after gangs laid waste to the capital and forced the prime minister to resign. But Haitians are wary from bitter experience of outside forces intervening to find a solution to the crisis

A few weeks ago, two of the main criminal gangs in Haiti joined forces, staging a full-scale insurrection while the prime minister, Ariel Henry, was travelling abroad. Thousands of gang members took over government buildings, police stations and hospitals and broke into prisons, where they released thousands more gang members into their ranks. Before long, it was clear that the Haitian government and the police had lost control of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Widlore Mérancourt, the editor-in-chief of Haiti’s Ayibo Post, tells Michael Safi that for the first time he fears for his life while reporting from Port-au-Prince, such is the violent chaos there.

Continue reading...

Argentina: trans women among victims of ex-officers guilty of dictatorship-era crimes

Posted on by

Eleven found guilty of crimes against humanity after trial that heard testimony on torture, rape and forced disappearances

A court in Argentina has convicted 11 former military, police and government officials of crimes against humanity committed during the country’s last dictatorship in a sprawling trial that heard, for the first time, about atrocities suffered by trans women.

The three-year case focused on the forced disappearances, torture, rapes and homicides that occurred at or were connected to three clandestine detention and torture centres located in police investigative units on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. They were known as the Banfield pit, the Quilmes pit and “El Infierno” – or “hell” – by the officials who worked there.

Continue reading...

Details emerge on Baltimore bridge collapse victims: ‘They were wonderful family people’

Posted on by

Six men presumed dead reportedly were construction workers from Latin American countries, including a father of three

The six men presumed dead in the Baltimore bridge collapse on Tuesday all appeared to be construction workers originally from Latin American countries, according to reports, including a father of three, Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, as authorities said they had recovered the black box recorder from the ship.

Since the container ship Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge after losing power early on Tuesday morning, six members of a construction crew filling potholes on the major bridge are now presumed to be dead, according to state officials.

Continue reading...

Brazil and Colombia voice concern as Venezuela bans opposition candidate

Posted on by

South American neighbours respond to blocking of Corina Yoris, who was favoured to beat strongman Nicolás Maduro in elections

A chorus of Latin American nations, including Brazil and Colombia, have voiced concern over the deteriorating political situation in Venezuela after the opposition politician best-positioned to challenge its strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro, in July’s presidential election was prevented from registering for the vote.

Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old philosopher, was little-known outside academic circles until last Friday, when she was catapulted on to the frontline of Venezuela’s long-running political crisis by being named as the substitute for María Corina Machado, a prominent opposition figure who had been banned from running in the election.

Continue reading...

Jamaica condemns Frank Hester’s Diane Abbott comments amid concern over contract

Posted on by

Ministers condemn allegedly racist remarks and say they knew about them only after signing deal

The Jamaican government has joined widespread condemnation of comments by the Conservative’s party’s biggest donor, Frank Hester, amid concerns about a contract it signed with his digital health company.

Earlier in March, the Guardian revealed that during a meeting in 2019 Hester had said Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP, made you “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”, remarks that are now subject of an investigation by West Yorkshire police.

Continue reading...

Brazil summons Hungarian envoy to explain why Bolsonaro hid in embassy

Posted on by

Former Brazil president spent two nights at legation after two close aides were detained in February over alleged coup plot

Brazil’s foreign ministry has summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why the South American country’s embattled former president Jair Bolsonaro spent two nights “hiding” at Hungary’s embassy in Brasília last month as federal police investigators closed in on some of his closest allies.

Security footage obtained by the New York Times showed that in early February – four days after two Bolsonaro aides were arrested on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the Brazilian government – the rightwing populist took shelter in the embassy, a short drive from the presidential palace Bolsonaro once occupied.

Continue reading...