Just recently in Ecuador, large scale, indigenous-lead protests broke out against a controversial loan from the IMF, which has required the Moreno government implement widespread austerity and a repeal of a fuel subsidy that largely benefitted the poor, which represent a large sector of Ecuadorian society. This was seen by elites in the country as well as the US and… Read more »
Central American asylum seekers made the news last July and August as many migrants traveled from as far away as Guatemala and Honduras to seek asylum in the United States. They are again making the news now as the number of asylum seekers applying for asylum in Mexico have dramatically increased as they recognize their limited options. This is in… Read more »
A recent Trump Administration policy, known as MPP, means immigrants seeking asylum in the United States have to remain in Mexico while they await their court hearings. In addition, the US has drastically reduced the number of refugees it will accept next year to just 18,000, the lowest in decades. As Will Grant reports, the two policies are complicating an… Read more »
BRASILIA (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and his top diplomat said on Thursday they supported Brazil’s taking steps toward joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), although it is first backing accession by Argentina. Trump said in a Twitter post that a joint statement he released with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in March “makes absolutely clear that… Read more »
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil may have backed out of hosting this year’s U.N. climate summit, but the country will still take a leading role in negotiating the mechanisms needed to implement the Paris Agreement, its top climate negotiator said on Tuesday. Shortly after right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro won election last year, he canceled Brazil’s plans to host the COP25 climate… Read more »
October 15, 2019 – Reuters BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil aims to conclude free trade agreements between the South American free trade bloc Mercosur and Singapore and South Korea by next year, as it also eyes deals with several other Asian countries, a Brazilian diplomat said on Tuesday. Mercosur will hold initial trade talks with Vietnam and Indonesia later this year,… Read more »
After more than 10 days of protests, President Lenin Moreno repealed the decree that removed the gasoline subsidies . The indigenous communities raised their voice against the government and after days of chaos in the main cities of Ecuador, especially in Quito, they succeeded in having President Moreno repeal the decree against which they fought. After a weekend of crisis in… Read more »
(The Guardian) On a muggy morning in eastern Havana, a bus crammed with more than 100 sweaty commuters pulls in to a bus stop. The doors open and more passengers press in before – inch by inch – the hydraulic doors groan shut, slowly shunting the new arrivals inside. “All the buses are coming like this,” said Roberto López, 66,… Read more »
(The Guardian) Barack Obama has urged Canadians to re-elect Justin Trudeau, an apparently unprecedented endorsement of a candidate in a Canadian election by a former American president. Obama tweeted on Wednesday that he was proud to work with Trudeau and described him as a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. “The world needs his progressive… Read more »
(BBC News) Thousands of anti-government protesters in Haiti have clashed with police who stopped them marching on the home of President Jovenel Moïse. Weeks of protests over an economic crisis have been further inflamed by the killing of a prominent journalist who had been covering demonstrations. Néhémie Joseph was found dead in his car with gunshot wounds on Thursday. Protesters… Read more »