Displaying items by tag: Latin America

From 7 to 9 August, eight Amazonian nations met in Brazil hoping to agree on future strategies to protect the rainforest while sustainably developing the region. President Lula called this summit for the eight South American countries sharing a slice of the Amazon. It is the first time in 45 years that there has been a meeting to ensure a regional response to combat deforestation, crime and climate change. Three days before the event, a pre-summit meeting of civil society representatives agreed on an alliance to combat deforestation, but each country will pursue its own conservation goals when the heads of state discuss and make decisions. President Lula said that previous meetings were just talk, talk, talk, and nothing happened, and this meeting is the first great opportunity for people to show the world what they want to do. Experts and conservationists have hailed the event as a turning point for the future of the Amazon rainforest. See also

Brazilian president Lula wants his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, to free Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who was sent to prison for over 26 years for refusing to leave Nicaragua after Ortega expelled him with 222 other political prisoners to America. He had been locked up for sermons unflattering to the government. Because he refused to leave, he was sent to a maximum-security cell. President Lula said, ‘There is no reason for the bishop to be prevented from exercising his function in the Church. The only thing the Church wants is for Nicaragua to free him.’ While Brazil and Nicaragua have good relations, ties between the Vatican and the Central American state have been severely strained following a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2018, when the Church acted as a mediator between them. Lula said that Ortega should recognise that a mistake had been made.

Criminals in Peru have wrong-footed themselves during a robbery at a shoe store. Three people broke into a shop in Huancayo and made off with more than 200 trainers - but they were all for the right foot. The lame attempt at a lucrative robbery was captured by security cameras. Offloading 200 right shoes may not be an easy task.

13-year-old Marcelo and his younger brother leave their Venezuelan home at 4.30 am every day, to walk unaccompanied, in the dark, for 2 ½ hours, to attend school in Colombia. Their lessons start at 6.30. They slip into Colombia through informal border crossings known as trochas - dangerous rural dirt tracks weaving across the arid border, controlled by local armed groups, drug gangs and smugglers who often charge users a fee to pass through. In a sign of teenage bravado, Marcelo denies being scared of journeying through these crossings: he says, ‘I like coming to school in Colombia. They don't ‘have lessons where I live’. Venezuela's crumbling economy and socio-political crisis have pushed institutions to the brink. Rural schools are neglected, offering only a few lessons a week with a critical shortage of teachers. Official border crossings have reopened, but sadly few have the necessary papers to use them.

Protesters and relatives of police officers who were killed in the line of duty took part in a march called by their relatives amid an increase in violent crime, in front of the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago. Chile is one of Latin America’s safest countries, but its residents are becoming more worried after an upturn in violent crime and a spate of police killings. This month, the government passed a series of laws and allotted an additional $1.5bn to its police force. One of those laws, called the ‘quick trigger’ law, allows police to use force when they feel their lives are under threat. Many Chileans are still haunted by riot police actions during the 2019 protests, and human rights advocates say the new law could lead to impunity for police abuses.

People having a pre-Lent holiday at San Sebastiao beach had two feet of torrential rain. Sao Paulo state’s floods also claimed lives on carnival weekend. TV and social media showed entire areas under water, hillside houses swept away by mud, flooded highways, cars destroyed by fallen trees and more. By 23 February dozens were missing, 48 had died and rescue crews were scrambling to provide necessities, but the logistics of reaching the isolated towns was creating difficulties. Not all aid has reached survivors. Criminals taking advantage of the chaos are looting trucks carrying donations. Pray for the 1,730 displaced people in churches, schools and kindergartens and the 1,810 left homeless, the injured, and those looking for the missing. Pray for those mourning the dead. Amid such devastation a two-year-old boy was rescued from a sea of mud, as was a woman giving birth. See

Four Catholic priests were charged with treason and given ten-year prison terms in a growing clampdown on critics of President Daniel Ortega. Two Catholic seminarians were also given the same sentence on the same charges. All six belong to Matagalpa diocese, led by Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who is under house arrest awaiting trial. A cameraman for Catholic television was also jailed for ten years. ‘We condemn these perverse actions of the regime, which violate human rights,’ the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights wrote on Twitter. They called for the men's immediate release. Ortega is targeting critical Catholic Church leaders following nationwide protests in 2018. He accused them of attempting to overthrow him when they served as mediators with protesters in the unrest that claimed 300+ lives. Since then, his government has expelled Catholic nuns and missionaries, closed Catholic radio and television stations, and arrested more than a dozen priests.

Jair Bolsonaro lost the presidential election to Lula da Silva in October, but his supporters do not accept that he lost. On 8 January thousands stormed key government sites, ransacking Congress buildings, breaking into the Senate chamber, presidential palace and Supreme Court in Brasilia. Lula’s inauguration on 1 January was peaceful, but when Anderson Torres took over as secretary of security on the 2nd he fired the entire command before going on a family holiday. The federal intervenor in public security accused Torres of ‘structured sabotage’. The attorney general said the police commander, and governor of Brasilia have been fired. The commander of the military police, former public security chief and others ‘responsible for acts and omissions’ leading to the riots were arrested. About 1,500 rioters are detained at the police academy and 600 elsewhere. Public prosecutors want to freeze Bolsonaro's assets because he has not admitted defeat in a tight election that divided the nation.

At least two people have died after heavy rain caused a mudslide which engulfed the BR-376 motorway in Parana state. The whereabouts of around thirty people are unknown. Several vehicles are thought to have been buried under the rubble on the coastal road. Aerial pictures show lorries lying on their sides hanging perilously over the edge of the motorway. Social media footage showed motorists battling through muddy flood water before the landslide. Some people online have asked why the road was not closed earlier. Access to a major port for grains and sugar shipments has been cut off. About 80% of goods exported from Paranagua, the country's second-biggest port for grains and sugar, are delivered by truck. The state authority has declined to estimate the total losses.

Asking permission to preach was necessary for Leonardo. Not asking could result in death from Colombian guerrillas or paramilitaries. Pastors are obstacles to guerrillas’ political ambitions, as young Christians are no longer attracted to their violent lifestyles. One Sunday gangs stopped him outside the church saying, ‘Today no church preaching!’ So with a speaker and microphone he preached outdoors to young boys. Very quickly his outdoor church grew to 70 adults and 53 children. Most had never heard the gospel, but they soon found faith in Christ and were baptised. Now Leonardo is training several others to preach. It is dangerous to share the gospel so openly, but he knows God is with him.