Global Pulse

标签： South America

南美洲

  • AP Exclusive: Trump administration tells prosecutors to stand down on Venezuela leader, sources say

    AP Exclusive: Trump administration tells prosecutors to stand down on Venezuela leader, sources say

    In a development that highlights the Trump administration’s shifting diplomatic approach toward oil-rich Venezuela, multiple current and former U.S. law enforcement officials have confirmed that the White House has quietly ordered federal prosecutors based in Miami to halt active criminal investigations into Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a figure who has been on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s watchlist for nearly a decade. This decision marks the most recent step in a rapid thaw of relations between Washington and Caracas following the ouster of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

    It remains uncertain whether prosecutors had gathered enough evidence to implicate Rodríguez in any criminal activity, or whether law enforcement teams were on the verge of issuing a formal indictment against her. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice claimed in an emailed statement that “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.” However, DEA records obtained earlier this year by The Associated Press confirm that Rodríguez has repeatedly appeared on federal law enforcement’s radar since at least 2018. Unlike a number of other high-ranking Venezuelan government officials, she has never been formally criminally charged in U.S. courts to date.

    Multiple officials familiar with the internal directive said the order to suspend investigations into Rodríguez was intentionally crafted to avoid disrupting the administration’s broader efforts to stabilize Venezuela in the wake of Maduro’s capture. It is still unclear whether the White House, which directed all inquiries about the decision to the Department of Justice, directly intervened to order the probes paused. “Everybody has been told to stand down,” one unnamed former senior law enforcement official told the AP. All sources who shared details of the internal deliberations spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not cleared to publicly discuss confidential law enforcement and policy matters. Requests for comment from Rodríguez, her U.S. legal representative, and Venezuela’s Communications Ministry went unanswered.

    By removing the lingering threat of a potential indictment, even on a temporary basis, the U.S. has significantly reduced diplomatic and legal pressure on Rodríguez as the Trump administration works with the acting president to rebuild stability in Venezuela and open the country’s energy sector to American investment. Shortly after U.S. military forces transported Maduro and his wife to New York to face federal narcotics charges — both have pleaded not guilty — former President Donald Trump publicly praised Rodríguez as a “terrific person.”

    In recent months, the U.S. has lifted all sweeping sanctions that were imposed on Rodríguez during Trump’s first term, formally recognized her as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, and cleared the way for her administration to re-establish working relationships with Western financial institutions. This shift has also cleared a path for U.S. energy firms to pursue access to Venezuela’s proven petroleum reserves, the largest on the planet. As bilateral ties deepen, some foreign policy analysts have pointed to the U.S.’s Venezuela strategy — which combines oil blockades, criminal indictments of incumbent leaders, and implicit military threats to force internal regime change — as a potential blueprint for pressure campaigns against other long-standing U.S. adversaries, including Iran and Cuba.

    During Trump’s first term, Rodríguez and her brother Jorge Rodríguez, who currently leads Venezuela’s National Assembly, were sanctioned for their role in what the U.S. described as undermining Venezuelan democracy and entrenching Maduro’s authoritarian government. Despite that history, Trump publicly praised Rodríguez’s leadership in a social media post from early March, writing: “The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see!” In recent weeks, Rodríguez has welcomed multiple high-profile delegations of American energy executives to Caracas, including groups led by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

    Notably missing from the growing diplomatic goodwill between the two governments is any public commitment from Rodríguez to hold long-promised democratic elections. Last month, Rodríguez exceeded a 90-day temporary mandate to hold office that was set by Venezuela’s high court after Maduro’s ouster. When a visiting U.S. journalist asked her earlier this month for a specific timeline to schedule elections, she replied only: “Some time.”

    Top Democratic lawmakers have openly criticized the administration’s softening approach to Rodríguez. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has demanded the administration publicly explain its favorable treatment of Rodríguez, calling her a “central figure in Nicolás Maduro’s repressive regime.” Shaheen, joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent a formal letter last week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, noting that “Sanctions have been lifted on Ms. Rodríguez without any indication that she has taken concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order.”

    Rick de la Torre, former CIA chief of station in Caracas and current CEO of the geopolitical advisory firm Tower Strategy, said the decision to shield Rodríguez from prosecution aligns cleanly with the Trump administration’s core foreign policy priorities in Venezuela. “She’s a lifelong Marxist and was a senior leader of one of the world’s most corrupt regimes but the U.S. is providing her with breathing space and carrots to lay the foundation for democracy and U.S. investment,” de la Torre explained. He added, “There’s a shelf life to her utility, however. At some point she will face justice.”

    As the AP previously reported, the DEA has built a detailed intelligence file on Rodríguez stretching back to at least 2018, with allegations against her ranging from large-scale drug trafficking to illegal gold smuggling. According to DEA records, a confidential informant told agency investigators in early 2021 that Rodríguez used hotels on the Caribbean Venezuelan resort of Isla Margarita as a front to launder proceeds from illegal activity. Her name has been connected to roughly a dozen separate DEA investigations spread across field offices from Paraguay, Ecuador, Phoenix and New York, with several of those probes still active earlier this year. Records also link Rodríguez to Alex Saab, a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman alleged to be Maduro’s chief bag man, who was first arrested by U.S. authorities in 2020 on money laundering charges. Just this month, Rodríguez ordered Saab deported as part of a broader purge of insider business figures accused of enriching themselves through corrupt deals with the former Maduro regime.

    It remains unclear which specific active investigations in Miami included Rodríguez’s name, though two former officials confirmed she has also been discussed in meetings among investigators in Tampa, who were tasked last year by former Attorney General Pam Bondi with probing financial corruption linked to Venezuela. At the time the investigations began, Rodríguez was serving as Maduro’s vice president. Under long-standing Department of Justice policy, the attorney general must personally approve any criminal charges against a sitting foreign head of state, who generally enjoy broad immunity from prosecution under both international law and U.S. domestic law.

    The pause in investigations into Rodríguez is not an isolated case: the Trump administration has also hit the brakes on ongoing federal probes into another high-profile Latin American leftist leader, Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The DEA had previously designated Petro a “priority target” over alleged ties to drug trafficking organizations, with federal prosecutors conducting a months-long investigation into the claims. The New York Times reported in March that U.S. officials have privately assured the Colombian government that Petro will not face criminal charges in connection with the probe.

    Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor who previously served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, said that ordering law enforcement to stand down from a legitimate investigation for political or diplomatic reasons would be “deeply troubling.” “The White House cannot use criminal enforcement as a diplomatic light switch,” Levin told the AP. “DOJ decisions are supposed to be based on law, evidence, policy and public safety — not on whether a foreign official is useful to the administration at a given moment.”

    This report was contributed to by Durkin Richer from Washington, Mustian from New York, and Regina Garcia Cano from Mexico City, as part of an ongoing investigation tied to the FRONTLINE documentary *Crisis in Venezuela*, which premiered on PBS on February 10, 2026.

  • How my brother went from liberal Hollywood actor to manosphere ‘messiah’

    How my brother went from liberal Hollywood actor to manosphere ‘messiah’

    A year-long investigation by BBC World Service has uncovered a sharp, underdocumented surge in the popularity of misogynistic manosphere content across the Global South, tracing how algorithmic amplification, financial incentives, and shifting gender dynamics have turned once-marginalized anti-feminist rhetoric into a mainstream, lucrative industry. At the center of the trend is Luis Castilleja, a former aspiring Hollywood actor who now goes by the alias El Temach—Latin America’s largest manosphere creator, boasting more than 11 million followers across social platforms and an annual income from content alone that tops $1.5 million.

    A decade ago, Castilleja was a free-spirited creative living a liberal lifestyle in Los Angeles, pursuing work as a performer after studying theater in Mexico City. But after struggling to land consistent roles and experiencing a painful breakup, he returned to Mexico and launched a social media channel in 2020 focused on male self-development. According to his sister Alex Castilleja, a Mexico-based design engineer, his early mission was rooted in good intentions: he wanted to help other young men process feelings of inadequacy and disappointment after life setbacks. That initial purpose quickly warped, however, as Castilleja realized the viral and financial potential of content that blamed women for men’s struggles.

    Alex, who has not spoken to her brother in two years, says Castilleja openly admitted he was copying the playbook of Western manosphere figurehead Andrew Tate, whose controversial content had already gone viral globally. As algorithmic engagement rewarded increasingly extreme rhetoric, Castilleja doubled down on misogynistic talking points: he attacks single mothers as poor life choices, labels women who reject traditional gender roles as promiscuous unfit partners, and frames feminism as a movement that erases men’s legitimate struggles. Alex says her brother now suffers from a “Messiah complex,” convinced he is the sole figure who can fix modern men’s issues, and that much of his extreme rhetoric is tailored purely to game social media algorithms. “He believes some things – and others, he’s just experimenting what works best with the algorithm,” she told the BBC, describing his transformation as shocking and tragic, turning a once-close sibling relationship toxic.

    El Temach is far from an isolated case. The BBC investigation analyzed 15 leading manosphere influencers based across Latin America, South and East Asia, and Africa, finding that their combined follower counts have tripled on average over the past three years. In Kenya, for example, influencer Andrew Kibe has become a household name, attracting more than 500 million views across hashtags linked to his content, with a fanbase of young men hungry for messaging about male empowerment. Like El Temach, Kibe repeatedly labels women gold diggers, attacks single mothers, and frames gender equality progress as discrimination against men.

    Both influencers deny their content is misogynistic. El Temach initially agreed to participate in the BBC documentary before pulling out last minute, launching a profanity-laced rant against the outlet on a live YouTube stream. When confronted by reporters after his sold-out Las Vegas show, his security blocked access. His team has called the BBC’s estimates of his income “highly irresponsible” and categorically denied allegations that he promotes misogyny, calling the claims unfounded and out of context. Kibe went further, disputing the very existence of misogyny as a concept, telling the BBC: “No man hates a woman. We love you – we are like gods to you, worship us.”

    Experts say the rapid growth of manosphere content in the Global South is directly tied to recent, rapid gains in gender equality across these regions. As more women enter higher education, the workforce, and positions of leadership, a subset of young men feel disenfranchised and invisible, a gap manosphere influencers have been quick to exploit. A 2025 global survey from King’s College London of more than 23,000 adults found that 57% of Gen Z men agree with the statement: “We have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men.” That belief is the foundational tenet of nearly all leading manosphere creators’ messaging.

    “He focuses a lot on men as having been dismissed by society, and [the narrative that] women have, you know, been the stars of the show,” explained Dr. Ali Siles, a gender and masculinities researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “He has this message of: ‘You do matter, believe in yourself.’” For many young men who feel abandoned by traditional support systems, that message resonates. The BBC gained full access to the multi-year social media histories of two Gen Z followers—19-year-old Mexican Julian, and Kenyan university student Ryan—to trace how users drift into manosphere content. Julian, who first started engaging with fitness and car content at 16, encountered El Temach via Instagram’s recommendation algorithm within months; today, he has liked more than 3,000 videos from manosphere creators, and says he believes “feminism has made men’s problems invisible.” Ryan, raised by a single mother, turned to Kibe’s content while searching for guidance on masculinity and success from a father figure, calling the influencer a surrogate for the parental guidance he lacked.

    But that validation of men’s struggles comes at a steep cost, researchers warn: it is built on the dehumanization and subjugation of women, rolling back decades of progress toward gender equality by pushing women back into restrictive, stereotypical roles. The investigation found real-world harm linked to this content, including intimate partner abuse. Fernanda, a doctor based in Mexico City, told the BBC her ex-partner—also a doctor—used El Temach’s messaging to justify years of controlling behavior. On the day they separated, she says he locked her in a room and forced her to watch four hours of El Temach’s videos, telling her she was the one at fault for their relationship problems, before threatening to kill her. “I think [my former partner] was already a sexist who was hiding it. But El Temach influenced him to no longer feel bad about it,” she said.

    For Alex Castilleja, her brother’s rise is a personal and public warning: it shows how the allure of fame and fortune can push even the most unlikely people into promoting harmful rhetoric that damages lives. “I think he knows what he’s doing on some level. I think that he sees and realises that if he ever owns up to what he did, it’ll destroy him,” she said. “He drifted… into this weird dystopic hell and he’s just this… violence robot. It’s very sad.”

  • Brazil to invest $75 million in highway through Amazon and unveils environmental protection plan

    Brazil to invest $75 million in highway through Amazon and unveils environmental protection plan

    On a Wednesday ceremony held in Iranduba, a small Amazonas city roughly 37 kilometers from the Amazon basin’s largest urban center Manaus, Brazil’s federal government unveiled a $75 million investment plan to pave the long-unfinished BR-319 highway, a major infrastructure project cutting through the heart of the world’s most biodiverse and climate-critical rainforest. The 1976-originated highway remains largely unpaved to this day, connecting the northern Amazonian states of Amazonas and Rondonia to the rest of Brazil and ending in Manaus, a city home to more than 2 million residents. Running parallel to the Madeira River, a key tributary of the Amazon that has been repeatedly crippled by severe droughts disrupting regional cargo transport, the project is framed by the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a critical step for regional connectivity while promising rigorous environmental safeguards that would set a global benchmark.

    “From an environmental standpoint, it will be the most modern road in the world,” Lula told attendees at the event, which was also attended by Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco and a cohort of local politicians widely expected to back Lula’s campaign for a fourth non-consecutive presidential term in October’s national election. “Any foreigner who comes here to weigh in on the climate issue, we will show what we’ve done here,” the president added. Alongside the highway funding announcement, the government revealed additional planned local investments led by state-run energy giant Petrobras and its pipeline subsidiary Transpetro.

    To address widespread environmental concerns over the project, the Lula administration unveiled a parallel environmental protection plan that it says will mitigate the highway’s potential impact on the rainforest. The plan includes continuous satellite and on-the-ground environmental monitoring across a 31-mile-wide buffer zone stretching along the entire length of the highway, new inspection checkpoints, permanent bases for environmental enforcement agencies, and the creation of new protected conservation units. Officials noted that the highway corridor cuts through one of the Amazon’s most ecologically sensitive regions, requiring a stronger permanent state presence to prevent unauthorized incursion. A private contractor will be hired in 2028 to support ongoing enforcement efforts, according to the government’s plan. A day before the formal announcement, Lula visited an active work section of the dirt highway, posing for photos with construction crews and machinery to signal the administration’s commitment to moving the project forward.

    Despite the government’s promises of robust protection, environmental organizations have fiercely opposed the project and challenged it in Brazil’s courts. Leading climate advocacy group Climate Observatory filed a lawsuit in 2024 to overturn the project’s 2022 preliminary paving license, arguing that regulators ignored formal technical warnings from Brazil’s national environmental agency and failed to complete required pre-construction steps, including meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities and independent climate impact assessments. A subsequent legal challenge briefly paused a related bidding process for construction contracts back in April, though a higher Brazilian court quickly overturned the suspension. Federal Minister George Santoro confirmed Wednesday that the entire highway will be contracted out and construction will be underway across the full route by the end of June.

    Ecologists and environmental policy experts have long linked the construction of paved roads in the Amazon to accelerated deforestation, a trend that threatens both the rainforest’s ability to regulate the global climate and the sovereignty of Indigenous communities that call the region home. The BR-319 corridor cuts through one of the Amazon biome’s last remaining well-preserved intact forest landscapes, which hosts dozens of established protected areas and Indigenous territorial reserves. Peer-reviewed scientific research has repeatedly confirmed that opening new official roads in the Amazon creates pathways for illegal logging, land grabbing, and the construction of unauthorized side roads that expand deforestation deep into intact forest. A 2014 study published in *Biological Conservation* found that 95% of all Amazon deforestation occurs within 3.4 miles of constructed roads, and for every one kilometer of official paved road built, an average of 1.9 kilometers of informal illegal side roads are carved into the forest.

    Critics point out that deforestation in the BR-319 region spiked almost immediately after the project was first announced under former President Jair Bolsonaro, long before any paving began. Marina Silva, a former environment minister in Lula’s current administration who stepped down in April to run for a seat in Congress, told a Senate hearing last year that clearing had already surged after the initial announcement. Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, argues that the Lula administration is cutting corners on environmental due process by rolling out protection plans at the same time construction proceeds, rather than finalizing and implementing safeguards before paving work begins.

    “Just the simple announcement under (former President Jair) Bolsonaro’s government that the road would be rebuilt nearly doubled land grabbing and deforestation in the area. Laying asphalt there creates another incentive,” Astrini said. “If there are no protection measures in place, it just becomes yet another driver of deforestation.”

  • 5 things to know about the protests challenging Bolivia’s new president

    5 things to know about the protests challenging Bolivia’s new president

    Six months ago, Bolivia’s new centrist President Rodrigo Paz stepped into office carrying high hopes from a nation weary of 20 years of near-constant socialist rule and reeling from the worst economic downturn it had seen in a generation. His early moves quickly delivered visible improvements: long queues that had become a daily fixture at gas stations disappeared after he negotiated new fuel import deals, the nation’s persistently depreciating local currency gained value on the black market, and investors reacted positively to his campaign pledges to cut ballooning budget deficits. After years of Bolivian diplomatic isolation on the global stage, Paz also moved to repair fractured ties with the United States and key regional powers, drawing dozens of international delegations to his inauguration and filling Bolivians with a new sense of national pride.

    Today, that early optimism has curdled into deep uncertainty and public dread as widespread violent protests have engulfed Paz’s administration, a key ally of the U.S. under former President Donald Trump. Protesters have deployed dynamite to blockade major urban centers, cutting off supplies of food, fuel, and critical medical care to thousands of residents. Even Indigenous and rural Bolivians, who once backed Paz’s promises to upend the existing political order while protecting longstanding social welfare programs, are now joining calls for his immediate resignation. As the crisis deepens, Paz has secured congressional approval for legislation that clears the way for a national state of emergency. Below are five key factors shaping the unrest roiling the South American nation.

    ### Disillusionment Among Former Supporters
    Paz’s ascent to power relied on the support of defectors from the long-ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, who backed him over more hardline conservative opponents. Today, many of these voters say they have been abandoned by the new administration. Within weeks of taking office, Paz struck governing deals with right-wing parties in congress and sidelined his populist vice president, who was widely credited with delivering the grassroots support that won him the election. Notably, Paz appointed no members of Bolivia’s Indigenous majority—who make up more than half the country’s population—to top cabinet or government posts. He backed an agribusiness-focused land reform bill that Indigenous leaders warned would open the door to mass evictions of small family farmers, and he eliminated longstanding fuel subsidies, sending gasoline prices soaring by nearly 90%. Many motorists have also reported that imported fuel is contaminated and has damaged their vehicles.

    Paz has attempted to blunt public anger, which has been amplified by global price pressures tied to geopolitical conflict, by offering direct cash transfers to low-income households, approving a 20% increase to the national minimum wage, and repealing the controversial land reform bill. But his refusal to meet union demands for further salary hikes has left the national labor movement infuriated and more determined than ever to push for his ouster.

    ### A Historic Siege Tactic With a Track Record of Toppling Governments
    Bolivia’s unique geography turns road blockades into an extraordinarily powerful political weapon. Blockades on the mountain roads leading to La Paz, the country’s administrative seat of government, can completely cut off more than 1.6 million local residents—over 13% of Bolivia’s total population. The strategy of laying siege to the capital was first popularized during an 18th-century rebellion against Spanish colonial rule and has long been a go-to tactic for Indigenous movements demanding political change.

    In 2003 and again in 2005, mass blockades of La Paz organized by Indigenous and social movements protesting plans to sell the country’s natural gas reserves to foreign firms toppled two consecutive pro-Western governments, clearing the path for MAS leader Evo Morales to rise to the presidency. Now, the blockades choking La Paz have entered their fourth week. Thousands of trucks carrying food and critical supplies, including medical oxygen for hospitals, remain stuck on blocked highways. Beef, eggs, and fresh fruit have all but vanished from grocery store shelves, and the military has been forced to fly in subsidized chicken to prevent a total food collapse. At least four people have already died due to delays in accessing emergency medical care, and hospitals have been forced to ration remaining supplies exclusively to critical cases. Business owners and transport workers who oppose the blockades are increasingly pressuring Paz to clear the roads by any means necessary, holding mass marches through downtown La Paz where they banged pots and chanted demands for immediate action.

    ### Mounting Pressure For a Crackdown
    Bolivian security forces have already used tear gas to disperse protesters and arrested more than 120 movement leaders, but Paz has so far refused calls to deploy the military to break the blockades by force. He has argued that the deaths of protesters at the hands of state security would only escalate tensions, and has repeatedly framed dialogue as the only viable path out of the crisis. “There should not be any deaths in Bolivia,” Paz said Wednesday during the formation of a new advisory council to incorporate underrepresented social groups into economic policy. “What we need is dialogue. For the love of our country, let’s talk.”

    Paz has already made a series of concessions to defuse tensions: he has offered performance bonuses to public school teachers, reached tentative agreements with protesting mining groups, cut his own presidential salary in half, fired his unpopular labor minister, and appointed an Indigenous lawyer to fill the vacant post. Still, calls for a 60-day state of emergency that would put the military in charge of restoring public order continue to grow. Late Tuesday, congress passed legislation lifting constitutional restrictions on the military’s role in quelling domestic unrest, giving Paz the legal authority to declare the emergency measure. Paz has described the step as an option of last resort.

    ### Ex-President Evo Morales Awaits A Political Comeback
    Former President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous head of state who ruled the country for 14 years before being ousted in 2019, is now calling for early national elections to end the crisis. “Paz only has two paths left: a suicidal decision like militarization or … an election in the next 90 days,” Morales wrote on the social platform X.

    Morales has been in hiding for nearly two years in Bolivia’s central Chapare coca-growing region, evading an arrest warrant on human trafficking charges stemming from allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Morales has repeatedly denied the accusations, framing them as a politically motivated hit job by his rivals. Many of the unions and Indigenous groups leading the current protests against Paz are aligned with Morales, whose 2019 attempt to stay in power beyond constitutional term limits alienated much of his once-massive base and led to his ouster. Last week, Morales’ most loyal supporters—seasoned protesters from the region’s coca-growing unions—officially joined the protest movement, marching across the Andes to La Paz to demand Paz resign. Paz’s administration has accused Morales of secretly funding the demonstrations, a claim Morales has denied.

    ### Global Responses Lay Bare Regional Political Fault Lines
    Right-wing, Trump-aligned administrations that have recently won power across Latin America—including governments in Argentina, Chile, Honduras, and Costa Rica—have publicly pledged their support for Paz and labeled the protests a destabilizing threat to democratic order. In response, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, one of the region’s few remaining leftist heads of state, has publicly defended the demonstrations, calling them a “struggle for Latin American dignity” and a justified response to “geopolitical arrogance.” In retaliation for Petro’s comments, Bolivia expelled Colombia’s top ambassador to the country.

    The United States has taken a hard line against the protests, characterizing the unrest as a coup attempt against a democratic ally. “We will not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected leaders in our hemisphere,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week. The U.S. Embassy in La Paz announced it would close Wednesday and Thursday due to the ongoing unrest, citing safety concerns for diplomatic staff.

    Reporting for this article was contributed by DeBre from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

  • Bolivian Congress allows deployment of troops to quell protests

    Bolivian Congress allows deployment of troops to quell protests

    Nearly four weeks of mass road blockades and widespread demonstrations across Bolivia have pushed the country’s Congress to approve a controversial bill expanding the president’s authority to declare national states of emergency and deploy military forces to put down public protests. The legislative vote, which passed Bolivia’s Chamber of Deputies by a comfortable two-thirds majority on Tuesday, reverses a 2020 regulation that only allowed military deployment for crowd control when police forces were proven to be overwhelmed by civil unrest. The unrest currently roiling the Andean nation began in late April, initially sparked by a proposed land reform package from current centre-right President Rodrigo Paz.

    Small-scale Bolivian farmers raised early alarm over the legislation, arguing it would clear the way for large agricultural landowners to acquire small holding properties at an accelerated pace. Though the Paz administration insisted that any future land transactions would remain strictly voluntary, major farm advocacy groups rejected the assurance and moved to block the country’s key highway arteries, kicking off the wave of nationwide protest. Paz eventually pulled the controversial land reform bill completely, but the movement had already snowballed, drawing in multiple sectors of Bolivian society with separate grievances against the sitting government.

    Transport workers and commercial drivers joined the demonstrations shortly after, decrying poor fuel quality that emerged after the administration eliminated long-standing national fuel subsidies. The subsidy cut initially created widespread fuel shortages, and enabled unregulated fuel vendors to sell adulterated product that has caused permanent damage to countless vehicle engines. Protesters’ road blockades have only worsened these supply gaps, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of scarcity and unrest that has cut off access to basic goods including potable water, fuel, and critical medications in multiple hard-hit regions. Last week, residents of the capital city of La Paz organized a large-scale ‘march in defense of democracy’ aimed at ending the blockades that have left the capital grappling with severe, ongoing shortages.

    Additional anger has been stoked by Paz’s plan to revise the 2009 Bolivian constitution, which was enacted during the tenure of left-wing former president Evo Morales. Paz, who ran for office on a platform of opening key Bolivian economic sectors to expanded private investment, has faced fierce pushback from Morales’ supporters, who warn the proposed constitutional changes will erode state control over the country’s most valuable strategic industries. Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, remains a deeply influential political force across the country, particularly among Indigenous communities that make up a large share of the protest movement.

    The Paz administration has directly accused Morales of orchestrating the ongoing unrest to distract public attention from an arrest warrant issued against him on May 11. A Bolivian judge held the former president in contempt of court after he failed to appear for a hearing over charges of statutory rape and human trafficking; prosecutors allege Morales impregnated a 15-year-old minor in 2015 and transported her across international borders. Morales has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as a politically motivated vendetta orchestrated by the country’s new right-wing leadership, and his supporters have threatened to shut down all national activity if he is taken into custody.

    In a public statement Monday, President Paz reaffirmed his preference for negotiated dialogue over what he called ‘armed confrontation’ even as mounting political pressure pushes his administration to move quickly to end the unrest. Supporters of the new emergency powers bill argue the 2020 restriction on military deployment improperly limited the sitting president’s constitutional authority, and that violent protest groups should not be allowed to dictate policy to a democratically elected government. But opposition lawmaker Sonia Siñani, who voted against the legislation, warned the new law will only escalate existing social tensions, comparing the move to ‘throwing fuel onto the flames.’

    Paz has already attempted a series of conciliatory measures to de-escalate the crisis, including a full cabinet reshuffle, cutting his own salary and the pay of all his cabinet ministers in half, and announcing the formation of a new negotiation council to engage with marginalized social sectors that feel disenfranchised under his administration. To date, none of these efforts have succeeded in ending the nationwide unrest, leaving the country in a stalemate as the expanded emergency powers open a new, more volatile chapter in the ongoing political crisis.

  • Global heritage group offers to work with Peru’s government on improving conditions at Machu Picchu

    Global heritage group offers to work with Peru’s government on improving conditions at Machu Picchu

    LIMA, Peru — The global non-profit New7Wonders Foundation, best known for its initiative cataloging the world’s most iconic cultural sites, formally extended an offer Tuesday to collaborate with Peruvian authorities to address longstanding systemic issues at the legendary Inca citadel Machu Picchu. Thousands of visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site annually report hours-long entry queues, extreme overcrowding along narrow trails, and inconsistent, unreliable local transportation services that sour the experience of visiting one of the world’s most famous archaeological landmarks.

    The offer of assistance comes nine months after the foundation issued a stark September 2020 warning: Machu Picchu’s status as one of the organization’s official New Seven Wonders of the World, a designation it has held since an international public vote in 2007, was in jeopardy due to the poor visitor experience. Foundation director Jean Paul De la Fuente, who is currently in the Peruvian capital holding preliminary talks with national tourism officials, says he has observed zero meaningful improvement at the site since that formal warning. He directly blamed the lack of progress on ongoing political paralysis that has left Peru with unstable leadership over the past decade.

    Peru is gearing up for a pivotal presidential runoff election set for June 7, a vote that will install the country’s ninth head of state in just 10 years. The runoff pits two very different candidates against one another: Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former Peruvican President Alberto Fujimori who is currently imprisoned for convictions on human rights violations, and Roberto Sanchez, a former commerce secretary who has run on a platform of sweeping reforms to Peru’s large mining industry. The next president will appoint an entirely new cabinet and national leadership team, so no sitting government officials have issued an immediate response to the foundation’s offer. De la Fuente noted he is ready and willing to sit down with the incoming administration after the election to co-develop solutions to the site’s systemic service failures.

    For millions of global travelers, a trip to Machu Picchu ranks as a bucket-list dream, De la Fuente explained. “People travel to Machu Picchu thinking that they will visit a marvel of the world,” he said. “But for many that dream is turning into a nightmare.”

    Carved into the Andean mountains in the 15th century as a royal estate for the Inca empire, Machu Picchu was first named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 in recognition of its unique architectural and cultural significance. Fourteen years after that designation, the site won a spot in the New7Wonders Foundation’s global public vote, which drew more than 100 million participants worldwide to select the seven most remarkable cultural sites of the modern era. De la Fuente said international tourism to the site has exploded exponentially since the 2007 designation, but Peruvian governments have failed to update infrastructure, visitor management systems, and transportation networks to keep pace with growing visitor volumes.

    The foundation director stressed that revoking Machu Picchu’s New Seven Wonders status is not currently on the table. Instead, the organization is pushing for Peruvian leadership to adopt its comprehensive improvement plan to address the site’s most pressing problems. “We hope to be able to work with a new leadership once it’s in place, to find a positive outcome for Machu Picchu,” De la Fuente said. “Going from a negative situation to making sure that Machu Picchu can be an example that many of the other wonders of the world can look up to.”

  • Argentina seizes 700 trafficked marine animals shipped from Kenya

    Argentina seizes 700 trafficked marine animals shipped from Kenya

    In a major breakthrough against the global illegal wildlife trade, Argentine law enforcement and conservation partners have seized more than 700 trafficked marine animals originating from Kenya, all bound for the lucrative international ornamental aquarium pet industry. The high-profile operation, carried out on April 26 at Ezeiza International Airport outside Buenos Aires, brought together multiple specialized stakeholders: Argentina’s Environmental Control Brigade, federal customs officials, the national agricultural health agency, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and Argentina’s leading marine wildlife rehabilitation organization Fundación Temaikèn.

    The intercepted shipment held a diverse array of tropical marine species highly sought after by private aquarium collectors and exotic pet enthusiasts. Among the creatures confiscated were surgeonfish, puffer fish, lionfish, butterflyfish, octopuses, crabs and starfish, all pulled illegally from Kenyan reef ecosystems, according to conservation officials. Tragically, many of the animals did not survive the grueling 120-hour transcontinental transit, while those that remained alive arrived exhibiting extreme stress, physiological shock, and life-threatening dehydration.

    As the only facility in Argentina equipped to handle large-scale confiscations of exotic marine wildlife, Fundación Temaikèn immediately launched an emergency rescue operation at its campus in Escobar, a city north of Buenos Aires. A team of veterinarians and wildlife care specialists worked nonstop for more than 28 hours to stabilize the surviving animals, modifying existing enclosures and installing 10 purpose-built new tanks fitted with specialized heating, filtration, and water conditioning systems designed to meet the unique needs of tropical marine species.

    “Many of these animals were extracted from reef ecosystems and arrived at the limit of survival, after spending days inside transport bags and boxes before the rescue could be carried out,” explained Cristian Gillet, wildlife director at Fundación Temaikèn, in an official statement. Because each animal was individually packed in hundreds of small plastic bags, rescue teams had to conduct painstaking drip acclimation procedures one animal at a time, gradually adjusting them to the facility’s water conditions to minimize the risk of fatal physiological shock from sudden shifts in temperature and salinity.

    Specialists also implemented a strict triage protocol to prioritize treatment for the most critically weakened animals, while separate teams sorted through the shipment to identify all species and separate living specimens from those that did not survive the journey.

    Wildlife trafficking analysts note that the global trade in ornamental marine species has grown rapidly in recent years, driven by rising consumer demand for exotic pets and custom home aquariums. Conservation organizations have long warned that this unregulated trade inflicts severe damage on already fragile coral reef ecosystems, where wild populations are often overharvested to meet demand, and it carries an extremely high mortality rate for the animals themselves, who suffer extreme conditions during capture and long-distance transit.

    “This is an industrialized crime,” emphasized Christian Plowman of IFAW. “Moving 709 animals comprising 102 species across international cargo routes, packed in bags for 120 hours of transit, is not something done casually. It requires coordination along every link of the chain.”

    Plowman added that this seizure marks the third time in 12 months that Argentine authorities have intercepted a large illegal shipment at the same entry point, a pattern that reveals this airport as an established smuggling corridor for wildlife traffickers. “Traffickers identify and exploit corridors that work until enforcement disrupts the model. This interception — and the two before it — should be understood as intelligence, not just seizures. They are telling us something important about where the networks are operating and how,” he said.

    As of the latest update, all surviving animals remain under round-the-clock specialized care at Fundación Temaikèn, while Argentine authorities work to determine their long-term fate. Investigators have not yet released information about the individuals or criminal networks behind the shipment, and have not announced any arrests to date. Officials from the Kenya Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press, the original reporting agency for this story.

  • Brazilian government commits $617.5M to Amazon ecological investment

    Brazilian government commits $617.5M to Amazon ecological investment

    SAO PAULO – In a bold move to advance sustainable development in the world’s largest tropical rainforest, the Brazilian government announced Monday a 3.1 billion reais ($617.5 million) commitment to drive ecological investment across the Amazon region. This injection of public funds expands Eco Invest, a federal sustainable finance program first unveiled during Brazil’s hosting of the COP30 United Nations climate summit last year.

    The allocated resources are earmarked for private and cooperative enterprises that align with three core priorities: scaling sustainable tourism, upgrading critical regional infrastructure, and growing the Amazon’s bioeconomy – an economic framework centered on sustainable use of native natural resources that keeps standing forest intact.

    Eco Invest operates on an innovative blended finance model: Brazil’s National Treasury provides low-interest loans to participating commercial banks at an annual rate of just 1%. In exchange, partner banks are required to mobilize at least four times the public loan amount in private sector investment, with foreign investors required to make up no less than 60% of that private capital. In the latest round of Eco Invest funding auctions, eight commercial banks pledged an additional 10.1 billion reais ($2 billion) in private capital alongside the government’s new 3.1 billion reais commitment. To date, the program has amassed a combined 140 billion reais ($28 billion) in public and private resourcesto invest across the region.

    Carina Pimenta, national secretary for bioeconomy at Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, outlined the on-the-ground impact of the new funding. She explained that the low-cost credit will support small producer cooperatives harvesting native Amazon goods such as acai berries and Brazil nuts, while also financing sustainable tourism infrastructure in protected conservation areas.

    Stretching across nine Brazilian states, the Amazon rainforest, which more than 60% lies within Brazil’s borders, is a critical global climate regulator, absorbing millions of tons of carbon annually and stabilizing global weather patterns. Much of the Brazilian Amazon is located in the country’s poorest regions, where historically high perceived risk and large upfront project costs have deterred private investors from backing sustainable ventures. Launched in 2024 under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, Eco Invest was designed to de-risk these projects through public credit guarantees, opening the door for private capital to flow into forest-positive economic activity.

    Brazil’s Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco emphasized that the program is central to Brazil’s goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. By creating tangible financial incentives for non-extractive, deforestation-free economic activity in the Amazon, Eco Invest offers a viable alternative to the region’s historical reliance on forest-clearing for agricultural expansion. Capobianco noted that since Lula took office in 2023, Brazil has successfully cut Amazon deforestation rates without sacrificing overall agricultural productivity, proving that climate action and economic growth can coexist.

    Monday’s investment announcement comes on the heels of a troubling week for Brazil’s environmental agenda. Last week, Brazil’s lower house of Congress – which holds a conservative majority closely aligned with powerful national agribusiness interests – fast-tracked a package of bills that roll back key environmental protections. One controversial provision would restrict the use of satellite monitoring, a core enforcement tool that Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency IBAMA credits with driving a roughly 50% drop in Amazon deforestation since 2023, to penalize illegal deforestation.

    While the rollback bills still require approval from the Senate and a signature from President Lula to become law, they have sparked widespread alarm among environmental advocates. On Monday, the Climate Observatory, a leading coalition of Brazilian environmental non-governmental organizations, issued a statement warning that the measures weaken oversight, territorial protection, and national environmental governance. By eroding these systems, the network argued, the bills will undermine Brazil’s ability to mitigate and adapt to the social, economic, and climate impacts of global warming.

    Addressing growing concerns about policy inconsistency, Capobianco reaffirmed the federal government’s unwavering commitment to meeting Brazil’s international climate pledges, despite the congressional pushback. “We will show that Brazil remains on a path of controlling and reducing deforestation,” he stated.

    This coverage of climate and environmental issues from The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Three arrested over burglaries against high-profile athletes

    Three arrested over burglaries against high-profile athletes

    A multi-national criminal investigation into a years-long burglary spree that targeted the homes of top athletes across the United States and Argentina has resulted in the arrest of three suspects by Chilean law enforcement, officials confirmed this week.

    The coordinated criminal operation, which unfolded between 2024 and 2025, counted Travis Kelce—All-Pro tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and fiancé of global pop superstar Taylor Swift—among its high-profile victims. When Kelce was out of town for a Chiefs game on October 7, 2024, the gang broke into his home and stole $20,000 in cash. Other well-known athletes targeted in separate break-ins include Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Linval Joseph and Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis, in addition to retired tennis legend and 2009 US Open champion Juan Martín del Potro, whose Argentine property was hit earlier this year.

    The investigation breakthrough came last week, when Chilean police took two suspects into custody for the break-in at del Potro’s residence. Evidence collected during that arrest led investigators to a third accomplice, who was apprehended by officers on Saturday. To date, Chilean law enforcement has not released any details on the suspects’ genders, and has also declined to publicly disclose the full list of athletes targeted by the ring.

    Chilean Interpol Commissioner Enrique Gutierrez announced in a video statement acquired by AFP that all three suspects are expected to be extradited to face trial in the jurisdictions where they committed the crimes. “These individuals will face justice in the United States or Argentina,” Gutierrez said, adding that the suspects had no prior notable criminal history within Chile, as the group had specialized exclusively in carrying out cross-border robberies outside of the country.

    Investigative details released by authorities show the gang followed a deliberate, systematic pattern to carry out their burglaries: members first “cased” target properties to map out layout and security systems, then cross-referenced public property records, professional team schedules, and public social media posts from athletes and their families to confirm when homeowners would be away from their residences for extended periods.

    The string of targeted break-ins prompted the U.S. National Football League to issue an official security memo to all league personnel warning athletes to increase precautionary measures for their personal properties as early as last year. The memo explicitly noted that criminals were leveraging open source information to identify empty homes, often timing raids to coincide with game days when players are guaranteed to be traveling or out of town. In February of 2024, seven additional men were charged in connection with the same broader burglary conspiracy, marking earlier progress in the ongoing investigation.

    As of this reporting, the BBC has reached out to both Chilean Interpol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for additional comment on the case and the upcoming extradition process.

  • Clashes as Venezuelan prisoners protest over alleged mistreatment

    Clashes as Venezuelan prisoners protest over alleged mistreatment

    A dramatic confrontation has broken out between incarcerated people and Venezuelan security forces at the Injuba prison in the southwestern state of Barinas, sparked by long-simmering claims of systemic mistreatment under the facility’s new leadership.

    Fed up with unaddressed grievances, dozens of inmates climbed onto the prison’s roof and set fire to mattresses to draw attention to their claims, prompting authorities to deploy additional reinforcements to the facility. Local witnesses reported hearing multiple explosions inside the complex, and inmates have alleged that security forces opened fire on the protesting group. Footage collected and published by the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP), a prominent non-governmental prison rights watchdog, captures the unrest: inmates gather on the roof chanting “we want justice”, one man displays visible gunshot wounds on his torso and arm, and a masked female speaker directly addresses interim President Delcy Rodríguez, calling for the resignation of both the national prisons minister and Injuba’s director.

    The protest is the culmination of more than a week of unheard complaints about poor treatment, inmates and OVP report. Inmates allege that since the new director took charge, they have been subjected to violent arbitrary searches, extended stays in solitary confinement, and ongoing physical abuse. They also highlighted a critical lack of access to life-saving medication for incarcerated people living with tuberculosis, a longstanding issue in Venezuela’s overcrowded, under-resourced prison system.

    Prison rights advocates have spent years decrying the inhumane conditions that plague most of Venezuela’s penitentiaries, which the OVP has repeatedly confirmed fail to meet even the most basic legal minimum standards for correctional facilities. The current unrest comes against a shifting political backdrop in Venezuela: following the U.S. military operation that removed long-time leader Nicolás Maduro from power in Caracas on January 3, widespread U.S. pressure has led to the release of hundreds of political prisoners. But despite this progress, the Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal estimates that more than 400 political prisoners remain in detention across the country.

    While Injuba is not a facility that primarily holds political detainees, Venezuela’s Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners has issued a statement of solidarity with the protesting inmates, arguing that widespread abuse—including punishment, deliberate hunger, prolonged solitary confinement, torture, and unsanitary, dangerous conditions—are not isolated incidents, but a core part of Venezuela’s official prison policy. These allegations echo recent findings from United Nations human rights bodies: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk noted in March that his office had continued to receive consistent reports of torture and abuse of detainees in Venezuela even after Maduro’s ouster.

    As of this report, neither Injuba’s prison director nor the interim government under Delcy Rodríguez has issued a public response to the inmates’ allegations or the ongoing unrest at the facility.