Countries

Donald Trump wasted no time in ordering a dramatic reversal of his predecessor's immigation policy. He immediately reintroduced the controversial 'Quédate en México' policy. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by repeating her country's commitment to 'humanitarian principles'.

'Uncle Covid', a man who survived interment at a secret mass-burial site in Iquitos, has become a macabre symbol of the disaster that engulfed the Peruvian Amazonian city of Iquitos, where 70 per cent of the inhabitants had been infected with Covid-19 by July 2020. A decrepit health system, an acute lack of medical oxygen, poverty, the corruption of local elites and the power of criminal gangs conspired to aggravate this catastrophe.

Mexico's first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, presented an account of her first hundred days in office at a huge rally in Mexico City on 12 January 2025. She promised to continue AMLO's 'Fourth Transformation' and placed social reforms at the top of her agenda. The imminent inauguration of Donald Trump cast a shadow, but Sheinbaum promised cooperation, but never subordination.

President Nayib Bukele has overturned El Salvador's seven-year-old ban on metal mining (the first such ban in the world) and renewed the assault on communities which campaign against mining. The five water defenders from Santa Marta, Cabañas, now face a new trial because of their opposition to gold mining.

LAB council member Elva Narcía Cancino reports from Chiapas, Mexico, where Zapatista indigenous women meet for a training day for Resistance and Rebellion -- against the background of rising levels of violence fueled by drug trafficking gangs and a government which has been ineffectual at best.

Brazil’s highly militarized policing disproportionately impacts poor and racialized communities. By providing funding and training, the United States has helped exacerbate the crisis.

A military court acquitted 8 soldiers of the 2019 assassination in Rio de Janeiro of musician Evaldo Rosa, together with a refuse collector who went to his aide. The only woman judge condemned the verdict and spoke of institutional racism and racial profiling.

Indigenous people in Guyana have received some payments from a government scheme, selling carbon credits to US oil company Hess. But they were not consulted and were forced to reach a decision in haste. They feel that this was a scheme designed by the government for its own purposes, and in which they had no real say.

A community of Indigenous Guna people were relocated from their island of Gardí Sugdub in the Caribbean Sea to a new mainland settlement. They are the first island community to be recognized by the government as victims of forced displacement driven by climate change. 

I am the mole that destroys the state from within.’ The phrase, uttered by Argentinian President Javier Milei describes his ultra-libertarian populist mission. Reality, particularly the economy may not agree, argues Pablo Stafanoni.