The impoverished Colombian city that’s home to victims of Colombia’s conflict and thousands of Venezuela’s migrants.
The displaced and ‘forgotten’ in Colombia’s Soacha slum | Colombia | Al Jazeera
sighhhh….
Category: The Americas,
Venezuelan families scavenge for food to survive hunger
Survey by top university says the average citizen has lost 9kg in the past year in what was once South America’s richest country.
…Venezuela’s prolonged and acute economic crisis – characterised by food shortages and hyperinflation – has seen infant mortality rise to almost 35 percent and maternal mortality to 65 percent in just the last year. Anemia is rampant.
The oil-rich country is now leading Latin America in what is called acute malnutrition, defined by experts as a rapid decline of nutrition that puts a child’s life at risk.
The Catholic Church and opposition leaders have called for the government to open a humanitarian corridor. But Constituent Assembly President Delsy Rodriguez flatly rejects such a plan.
Venezuelan families scavenge for food to survive hunger | Venezuela News | Al Jazeera
sigh….
New earthquake, magnitude 6.1, shakes jittery Mexico
A strong new earthquake shook Mexico on Saturday, causing new alarm in a country reeling from two still-more-powerful quakes this month that have killed nearly 400 people.
New earthquake, magnitude 6.1, shakes jittery Mexico – The Washington Post
Jeezus….
Trudeau confronts Canada’s failure of indigenous people in U.N. speech
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday admitted Canada had failed its indigenous people and told the United Nations his government would do better to improve the lives of aboriginals and achieve reconciliation.
Trudeau used his speech to the U.N. General Assembly to frankly acknowledge the dark history of Canada’s colonization as one of “humiliation, neglect and abuse” and promised to do more to help the nation’s 1.4 million indigenous people.
…“Though this path is uncharted, I am confident that we will reach a place of reconciliation,” Trudeau later added.
…indigenous Canadians, who make up about 4 percent of the population and face higher levels of poverty and violence and shorter life expectancies.
Canada’s national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women has been hit by resignations and complaints it is progressing too slowly.
…Many aboriginal communities do not have access to safe drinking water, and suicides have plagued several isolated communities.
…Acknowledging Canada’s attempt to force assimilation through residential schooling and other repressive policies, Trudeau called the living conditions aboriginals face “the legacy of colonialism in Canada.”
Trudeau confronts Canada’s failure of indigenous people in U.N. speech
hmmm
Strong earthquake shakes Mexico, killing at least 139 people
The 7.1-magnitude quake occurred on the 32nd anniversary of the notorious Mexico City earthquake.
Strong earthquake shakes Mexico, killing at least 139 people – The Washington Post
whoa!
NAFTA: The view from a mind-bogglingly massive Mexican marketHerald
Avocado is on such a winning streak one merchant feels invincible in the face of Donald Trump. Rene Torres says a case of avocados that sold for as little as $13 a few years ago now costs $97.
…Oscar Moherano says he’s worried about what the end of NAFTA would mean to his market.
“The product would drop,” he said. “We’d be producing here with no other place to sell it.”
But these successes don’t tell the full NAFTA story. In fact, for agriculture, it’s been mostly negative. While salaries have gone up in industrial sectors like auto production, traditional farmers have been steamrolled by American competitors.
Margarita Rodriguez Lopez runs an association of farmers at the market. She says specialty products like avocados and papayas have thrived under NAFTA, but there have been sad stories in other sectors.
…Men in cowboy hats overseeing a corn delivery express opinions, discreetly.
Mexico’s corn producers have been devastated under NAFTA. Imports have surged nearly tenfold from the more productive U.S. As much as manufacturing communities have gained, Mexico’s traditional corn-farming communities have suffered.
“Prices are low,” says a man calling himself Oscar.
A friend next to him says of NAFTA: “It hasn’t helped.”
NAFTA: The view from a mind-bogglingly massive Mexican market | The Chronicle Herald
hmmm
Gold miners at a bar bragged about slaughtering members of a reclusive Brazilian tribe
Corry said the government has slashed funds for an agency that protects the tribes, leaving them “defenseless against thousands of invaders — gold miners, ranchers and loggers — who are desperate to steal and ransack their lands.”
“All these tribes should have had their lands properly recognized and protected years ago — the government’s open support for those who want to open up indigenous territories is utterly shameful, and is setting indigenous rights in Brazil back decades.”
According to the New York Times, the government closed five of the 19 bases it uses to monitor uncontacted tribes and prevent incursions by miners and loggers.
Three of the closed bases were in the Javari Valley, home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere else on Earth.
…Any contact can be contentious and even violent, with the uncontacted usually getting the worst of it because, as Lorenzi told The Post, “it’s usually bows and arrows against guns.”
…Investigations are tough undertakings. The site of the suspected killing, for example, is a 12-hour trek by boat during the dry season. And it involves a group of people with their own language and a centuries-long wariness of outsiders.
Even the details of the killing are sketchy, Lorenzi said. And the vacuum of information speaks to another fear advocates have: that these types of violent interactions happen a lot more frequently than is reported.
sigh…
Trump, ending DACA, says Congress can save ‘Dreamers.’ Here’s why that’s likely to fail
U.S. President Donald Trump has ended a program shielding young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers” from deportation, passing the buck to Congress. But dysfunction within the Republican caucus and immigration policy clashes across the aisle are throwing legislative alternatives into doubt.
sigh….
Orange is the new green: How orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest
In the mid-1990s, 1,000 truckloads of orange peels and orange pulp were purposefully unloaded onto a barren pasture in a Costa Rican national park. Today, that area is covered in lush, vine-laden forest.
Orange is the new green: How orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest
hmmmm
Mexico isn’t going to pay for the border wall (um, no shit, Sherlock???)
If you knew anything about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, it was that he was going to build a wall on our southern border– and that Mexico was going to pay for it.
: BREAKING: Mexico isn’t going to pay for the border wall – CNNPolitics
<snort> if you bought that snake oil it is fitting for you to be choking on it right about now.
Canadian diplomat in Cuba also suffered hearing loss
The Canadian government says at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba also has been treated for hearing loss following disclosures that a group of American diplomats in Havana suffered severe hearing loss.
Canadian diplomat in Cuba also suffered hearing loss | Miami Herald
hmmm
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro taunts United States, Donald Trump as opposition leaders detained
Allies of two Venezuelan opposition leaders say Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma have been taken by authorities from the homes where they were under house arrest.
…Lopez was detained three years after protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s government and sentenced to more than a decade in prison on charges that include inciting protesters to violence. He was released last month to serve the rest of his term under house arrest. Ledezma, a former Caracas mayor, was also detained in 2015 and has been under house arrest.
…Maduro said Monday evening that he had no intention of deviating from his plans to rewrite the constitution and go after a string of enemies, from independent Venezuelan news channels to gunmen he claimed were sent by neighboring Colombia to disrupt the vote as part of an international conspiracy led by the man he calls “Emperor Donald Trump.”
what a clusterfuck of chaos the Cheeto is making even worse….
Venezuela crisis: The weekend’s three key events
We take a look back at key events in Venezuela since the the constituent assembly was sworn in.
Venezuela crisis: The weekend’s three key events – BBC News
Sigh….
Venezuela opens disputed new constituent assembly
Police use tear gas on protesters who accuse the president of making a power grab.
Venezuela opens disputed new constituent assembly – BBC News
hmmmm
Venezuela chief prosecutor to probe election fraud claim
Her office will investigate claims that the turnout figure from Sunday’s election was inflated.
Venezuela chief prosecutor to probe election fraud claim – BBC News
hmmmm
Death toll in Venezuela unrest soars past 100, according to AP
Days before polarizing vote to start rewriting its constitution, Venezuela is convulsing to rhythm of daytime strikes and nocturnal clashes
: Death toll in Venezuela unrest soars past 100, according to AP – CBS News
Sigh…
Teens on African Robotics Team Vanish From DC; 2 Cross Into Canada
Two of the six teenage members of an East African robotics team who were reported missing after competing in the FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition were seen crossing into Canada
Teens on African Robotics Team Vanish From DC; 2 Cross Into Canada | NBC Bay Area
hmmmmm
Dakota Access Pipeline foes win a court victory, but its significance is far from clear
Rather than a do-over, the judge concluded only that “the Corps will have to reconsider those sections of its environmental analysis.”
Dakota Access Pipeline foes win a court victory, but its significance is far from clear | MinnPost
hmmmm
Venezuela: People vote in unofficial referendum
All you need to know about two votes being held in a country wracked with political tensions, economic woes and unrest.
Venezuela: People vote in unofficial referendum | Politics | Al Jazeera
hmmmm
Oscar Pérez, fugitive Venezuelan pilot, reappears at vigil
Oscar Pérez is wanted by the government for the helicopter attack on state buildings.
Oscar Pérez, fugitive Venezuelan pilot, reappears at vigil – BBC News
hmmmm
No need for a full border wall, Trump says
Trump, who made the building of a wall along the border with Mexico a central promise of his campaign, [went back on his] pledge Thursday.
“You don’t need 2,000 miles of wall because you have a lot of natural barriers,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One during his flight to Paris.
“You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you don’t really have people crossing. So you don’t need that.”
“You’ll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles,” he said.
About 600 miles of the southern border already are protected by walls, fences or other barriers.
No need for a full border wall, Trump says – LA Times
No shit, asshat.
This 3,000-Year-Old Copper Mask Is Rewriting South American History
A square-shaped copper mask pulled from a tomb in the southern Andes is resetting our notions of where and when sophisticated metallurgy first appeared in pre-Hispanic South America.
This 3,000-Year-Old Copper Mask Is Rewriting South American History
wild!
Ancient Aztec temple, ball court found in Mexico City
A giant temple to the Aztec god of the wind and a court where the Aztecs played a deadly ball game have been discovered in the heart of Mexico City. Archaeologists unveiled the rare finds Wednesday after extensive excavations, giving journalists a tour of the semi-circular temple of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl and nearby ball court.
Records indicate that Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes first watched the ritual Aztec ball game at the court in 1528, invited by the last Aztec emperor, Montezuma — the man whose empire he went on to conquer.
Ancient Aztec temple, ball court found in Mexico City
cool
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