Latin America

A Venezuelan municipality where the main industry is oil refining, and that has an import-export “free zone”, is set to become a plastic bag-free area.

Shahdul Huq, a Bangladeshi national living in Japan for more than 20 years, last saw his daughter almost three years ago when he lost his ‘spouse visa’ following divorce from his Japanese wife.

“Open the door! Open the door, you SOBs!” Policemen dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and carrying “what I suppose were high-power rifles” broke down the door of the home of Efraín Bartolomé, a poet who lives on the south side of the Mexican capital. They had no warrant.

Indigenous people in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia are again preparing to make the long march to La Paz, 21 years after their first such protest. They have vowed to make the trek in defense of their lands, which they say are threatened by plans for a highway to be built with the backing of the Brazilian government.

The aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis has been marked by an outcry in Japan over radiation leaks, contaminated food and a government unable to put the public’s fears to rest.

“I accept this apology as a sign of a new time in Colombia, when democratic participation by all political forces will be possible,” leftwing legislator Ivan Cepeda said – and a ripple ran through the crowd in the packed gallery in Congress.

The son of a top dog in Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa drug cartel filed pleadings in a Chicago federal court accusing the U.S. government and its agencies of giving the cartel “carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States”.

Despite challenges like high interest rates and high household electricity tariffs, the Brazilian economy has been growing at the highest rates seen in decades. Another problem that, although it has not stood in the way of growth, must be overcome is the costly use of roads for transporting farm products – an issue that is being addressed by the expansion of railway networks.