Haiti Libre reports, “Ramón Celestino Velásquez Araguayán, Président de la compagnie aérienne nationale du Venezuela CONVIASA (Consortium vénézuélien des industries aéronautiques et des services aériens) a annoncé « Pour cette année 2019, nous nous sommes fixé pour objectif de relier le Venezuela à 18 nouvelles destinations. L’ouverture de ces routes nous permettra d’améliorer le transport de passagers et de fret… Read more »
Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy. Bolsonaro, who took power on Tuesday, said that Russia’s support of President Nicolas Maduro‘s “dictatorship” in neighboring Venezuela… Read more »
Guatemala notified the United Nations it was terminating a U.N.-backed anti-graft commission on Tuesday, months ahead of schedule, accusing the body of abuses of power, and prompting a swift rebuke from the U.N. secretary-general. The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, was set up over a decade ago with the authority to conduct independent investigations and work with… Read more »
Venezuela Supreme Court judge Christian Zerpa has fled to the US to protest over President Nicolás Maduro’s second term in office. Last year’s election “was not free and competitive”, the former Maduro loyalist told a Florida radio station. And he accused President Maduro of systematically manipulating the affairs of the Supreme Court. In response, the court said Mr Zerpa was… Read more »
About 300 troops have been sent to the north-eastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza to tackle a surge in criminal violence, authorities said. Soldiers will patrol there and across the state of Ceará in a bid to halt attacks on shops, banks and buses. The justice ministry ordered the special deployment after dozens of attacks this week. The attacks are a… Read more »
For this round of region reports, I decided to focus on an article about the overwhelming prevalence of violence in El Salvador and its effect on the country’s young population. The country has a huge population of members of gangs such as MS-13. El Salvador’s Minister of Defense, David Munguía Payés, claims that there is a estimated 60,000 gang members living… Read more »
One of my four articles for this region report cycle was about Guatemalan President, Jimmy Morales and his bid to expel the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) from the country. The President’s actions took place due to the CICIG beginning an investigation on Morales and the alleged funding irregularities in his 2015 election campaign. The CICIG was originally backed… Read more »
In a quiet side street of one of San Salvador’s infamous northern districts, lies a small community centre. All day, it is filled with small groups of children playing, paying little attention to how precarious their surroundings are. Severe violence is an established reality in the capital of the Central American country of El Salvador. The district’s residents suffer high… Read more »
Since the peace agreement between the Colombian government and Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in November 2016, thousands of guerrilla troops have demobilised from many corners of the country, mainly from isolated areas full of rich ecosystems. This has opened up areas that just a few years ago were too dangerous to visit. With the aim of rediscovering my own… Read more »
Last year’s election “was not free and competitive”, the former Maduro loyalist told a Florida radio station. And he accused President Maduro of systematically manipulating the affairs of the Supreme Court. In response, the court said Mr Zerpa was fleeing allegations of sexual harassment. Opposition parties boycotted the 2018 vote, calling it a sham. Venezuela crisis: A country in freefall… Read more »