(NPR) Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and leaders of the country’s indigenous peoples have reached a deal to cancel a disputed austerity package. The move follows nearly two weeks of violent, widespread protests. The unrest began after Moreno ended government subsidies that have helped keep fuel prices low in Ecuador for some 40 years. The move was part of a broader… Read more »
The brutal devastation of the Amazon has been highlighted recently by news sources all around the world. On September 24, 2019, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro addressed the UN, and the Amazon was one of his main talking points. Bolsonaro insisted that the Amazon is not the heritage of humankind, nor is it the lungs of the planet. He further condemned… Read more »
President Jair Bolsonaro has insisted that the Brazilian areas of the Amazon rainforest are sovereign territory. Conservationists blame Mr Bolsonaro and his government for turning a blind eye to farmers and loggers clearing land in the Amazon, hastening deforestation. But in an address at the United Nations in New York, he struck a defiant note. He said it was a… Read more »
RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – The surge in fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest this year fueled a spike in young children being treated for breathing problems as smoke clouded the air throughout the region, according to a study released on Wednesday. Roughly 5,000 children aged nine or younger were treated each month in May and June in 36 areas within… Read more »
About 200 Bolivians, most of them members of an indigenous group from the Chiquitanía region, are taking part in a protest march to demand more action be taken to stop fires that have ravaged their area. They are urging President Evo Morales to declare a national emergency, after blazes destroyed large areas of forest as well as ranch land and… Read more »
While much of the media spotlight has focused on the fires which have ravaged the Brazilian rainforest in recent weeks, a fight has been unfolding thousands of miles away to save a protected reserve in the largest area of tropical forest remaining north of the Amazon. The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala is a deforestation hotspot, but there is a… Read more »
On September 30, 2019, President Martin Vizcarra dissolved Peru’s congress to reduce the amount of constant corruption in congress. This prompted the opposing lawmakers to try to suspend him which will bring Peru into uncertainty after many years of corruption. Opposition lawmakers responded to the president’s decision by accusing President Vizcarra of staging “a coup” and immediately moving to try… Read more »
In an unexpected U-turn, the woman who was named “acting president” by Peru’s Congress has resigned just hours after being sworn in. Mercedes Aráoz’s swearing-in was an act of defiance by lawmakers angry at the dissolution of Congress by President Martín Vizcarra on Monday. The move meant that Peru briefly had two politicians claiming to be the country’s rightful leader…. Read more »
US President Donald Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down, according to a new book. The book, by two New York Times journalists, says Mr Trump suggested extreme methods of deterring migrants from crossing the southern border. They included building an electrified, spiked border wall and a snake or alligator-infested moat. Calling the claims “fake news”,… Read more »
President Martín Vizcarra of Peru ordered Congress to dissolve on Monday night, prompting lawmakers to try to suspend him and plunging the nation into uncertainty after a grinding, yearslong corruption crisis. Opposition lawmakers responded to the president’s decision by accusing Mr. Vizcarra of staging “a coup” and moved swiftly to suspend him for 12 months. They nominated his vice president,… Read more »