Displaying items by tag: Latin America

Christians are the majority of Mexico’s total population, but they are targeted by unlawful gangs for speaking out against criminal operations and violence. Cartels violently try to silence them. In rural indigenous communities, anyone turning away from traditional religious beliefs faces rejection and punishment in the form of fines, imprisonment, and forced displacement. Non-discrimination laws mean that any links between Christian faith and politics are placed under very strict legal scrutiny. In areas controlled by criminals or drug cartels, young Christian men are exposed to forced enrolment. Those who do not accept it face threats, potential abduction, and even death. Families are bribed and intimidated to force their children to obey the gangs. Church leaders are victims of blackmail because they have access to church funds. Mexico also has the highest rate of human trafficking in the world. Women are easy targets.

With fears that the war in Ukraine could push global energy prices even higher, Washington recently met Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to discuss conditions for repealing the crippling US sanctions in place against his country. Washington, which broke off relations in 2019 over Maduro’s rigged elections and crackdowns on opposition protests, is reportedly demanding free and fair presidential elections and extensive reforms to the Venezuelan oil sector. Maduro, for his part, wants an end to the sanctions and to be readmitted to the SWIFT global financial platform. Venezuela is a close ally and partner of Russia. Some members of Congress have criticised any effort to rekindle relations, saying that efforts to isolate Putin should not boost other authoritarian leaders. Aside from the political whiplash of resuming oil trade, Venezuela’s oil fields have long suffered from mismanagement. Some industry analysts say it could be slow to increase supply. See

A court in Nicaragua has found seven critics of the government of Daniel Ortega guilty of conspiracy in what human rights groups have denounced as a ‘political trial’. Among those convicted are three opposition leaders who had planned to run in the 2021 election. Dozens of government critics were detained in the run-up to the poll, in which Mr Ortega won a fifth term. In a trial held at El Chipote prison behind closed doors, the judges found the seven guilty of ‘conspiracy to undermine national integrity’. The prosecution has asked for sentences ranging between eight and 13 years. This is the latest in a wave of trials against opponents of Ortega. Earlier in February, two of his most outspoken critics - Dora Téllez and Lesther Alemán - were also found guilty of conspiracy in trials dismissed by rights groups as a ‘sham’. Recently, another jailed opposition leader, Hugo Torres, died while awaiting trial.

The Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019 killed 270 people and caused extensive environmental damage that affected the livelihoods of 944,000 people. Men were brought in to carry out repairs, and violence against women increased at home and outside the home. This was attributed partly to the influx of the new workers and partly to households under pressure when livelihoods collapsed. On the third anniversary of the disaster, women have described the effects on them when drinking-water supplies were destroyed, as well as fisheries and other sources of income. They said that their livelihoods, particularly in agriculture and fishing, had been ‘extinguished’ because of contamination, shortages of water and lack of investment in production. Christian Aid said, ‘Families have been torn apart and the community remains devastated three years on. It is chilling to understand countless women have been subjected to the horrors of gender-based violence.’

Landslides triggered by heavy rain and flooding have sent mud waves three metres high across Quito, killing at least 24 and seriously injuring 48; many more are missing. Residents could not save anything as mud carried away motorcycles, cars, trees, telegraph poles and anything not bolted down. It was the worst landslide in almost twenty years. Government rescue workers, hearing cries for help from people trapped below the mud, called for everyone to keep quiet so they could hear survivors. The rescue operations remain dangerous as smaller mud waves continue to cascade from the mountains. Pray for residents and rescue workers in danger of being buried as soil from the mountain continues to shift. Authorities have not yet ruled out the possibility of another major landslide in the area. Most of Quito’s 2.7 million people have been taken to shelters, some suffering from hypothermia. Authorities have called for three days of mourning to remember the victims.

A fourth journalist has been killed in Mexico in a month, drawing condemnation from freedom-of-the-press groups. Roberto Toledo, a 55-year-old lawyer, was gunned down by three men in a parking area by the law office where he worked. Three other journalists have been killed so far this year. ‘His death underscores the incredibly dangerous situation that journalists across Mexico are having to contend with as they try to go about their daily work.’ said Natalie Southwick, programme coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Committee to Protect Journalists. The group condemned the attack on social media and urged Mexican authorities to investigate. Mexico has offered bodyguards and bulletproof vests to vulnerable journalists in the past, but it hasn’t been enough. Tourist drug demand is bringing cartel violence to Mexico’s most popular resorts.

The Peruvian government has asked for international support after 6,000 barrels of crude oil washed onto beaches in the ‘worst ecological disaster’ in recent history. Tonga’s volcano eruption caused unusual waves to disrupt an oil tanker unloading crude oil at Repsol oil refinery, and an underwater pipeline ruptured during the process. Twenty-one beaches are ‘a serious risk to health’, and the oil slick is the size of 320 football fields. Hundreds of fishermen are without work; two protected marine reserves for sea otters, Humboldt penguins and red-legged cormorants have been destroyed. A marine biologist said, ‘We are watching the destruction of the Peruvian marine ecosystem and the livelihoods of those who depend on it, because neither Repsol nor the state has the capacity to respond.’ The oil will be in the sea for months, affecting fauna, food and health. Dead seals, fish and birds are washing up on oil-covered beaches.

Amnesty International, in a new report called They Are Girls Not Mothers, found draconian abortion laws and systemic failure to tackle child sexual violence have forced girls as young as ten years old to carry out full-term pregnancies. The report focuses on sexual violence against children - specifically girls under the age of 14 - who become pregnant and are forced to carry the pregnancy to term. It also analyses the failures of the system in Paraguay to address cases of sexual violence against children and teenagers. Amnesty International said Paraguay is turning its back on girls and teenagers facing unimaginable abuses. Although on paper there is a legal framework to support survivors of sexual violence, in practice they are at the mercy of a chaotic system that does not listen to them or prioritise their well-being. Forcing someone to continue with a pregnancy, particularly when it is the result of rape, can be considered torture.

Txai Suruí is a climate activist who is part of an indigenous community in the Amazon rainforest. She spoke to world leaders at COP26 about the direct impacts of climate change that her tribe is already experiencing. But after the speech she was publicly criticised by President Bolsanaro for ‘attacking Brazil’. This prompted many people to send her abuse on social media. When she spoke to a BBC reporter, she said, ‘I think I said the right words because they attacked me.’ Brazil hosts the two most important and diverse tropical forests globally. Almost 20% of the Amazon forest has been cut down in recent decades. This deforestation must stop before it becomes a savanna. Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil successfully controlled deforestation by 80%, by reducing illegal foresting, creating protected areas and restricting soya and cattle expansion. This resulted in increased food production by large farming complexes and strengthened smallholder farming. See

President Daniel Ortega has gripped Nicaragua’s election on 7 November by arresting all competition, controlling electoral authorities, and reinventing himself as a business-friendly devout Catholic. The US is working with international partners to prepare new sanctions to be levied if he wins the election that Washington denounces as a sham. It has also begun a review of Nicaragua’s participation in a Central American free trade agreement and has halted support for any ‘trade capacity building’ activities seen as benefiting Ortega’s government. Nearly half of Nicaraguans live below the poverty line, and an additional 90,000 individuals fell into poverty as a result of the pandemic. Nicaragua is one of the most corrupt countries globally - a costly, painful legacy of misrule by Ortega’s dictatorship. He stole, wasted and misused state resources, which were destined to combat poverty and used for national development, resulting in immense economic costs. See