International

Oil cleanup crews replace bathers on Peru beaches

AFP

At Miramar Beach in Peru’s popular resort of Ancon, there are no bathers despite the summer heat. Instead, it teems with workers in coveralls cleaning up an oil spill.

Almost a million liters (264,000 gallons) of crude spilled into the sea on Saturday when a tanker was hit by waves while offloading at La Pampilla refinery in Ventanilla, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Lima.

Its owner, Spanish oil company Repsol, attributed the accident to the swell caused by the volcanic eruption in Tonga, thousands of miles away.

“Oil reaches the beach during high tide at night… and deposits the oil on the shore,” Martin Martinez of the NGO AMAAC Peru, supervising the cleanup, told AFP.

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“We take advantage to remove it from the sea, that and the saturated sand,” he said.

The spill has dealt a blow to tourism in the popular resort, and to businesses who make most of their money in the summer season.

“There were many people until Sunday; the stain arrived on Monday, and since then, no one is swimming anymore,” said 48-year-old Richard Gutierrez, who has a food and soda stand on Miramar beach.

“We cannot sell anything, there are no vacationers, there is no one” apart from about 100 cleanup workers — soldiers, Repsol hired hands and volunteers — removing the polluted sand with spades to be taken to a toxic waste treatment facility.

– ‘Ecological disaster’ –

Peru’s government has declared the spill of some 6,000 barrels of oil an “ecological disaster” and has demanded compensation from Repsol.

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The company denies responsibility, saying maritime authorities had issued no warning of freak waves after the Tonga eruption.

The task, which began Tuesday, is an arduous one.

The workers deposit the polluted sand onto blue tarps, which are dragged to a pile further inland, awaiting removal to another site.

Work begins at 8:00 am and finishes at 6:00 pm, with a 30-minute break for lunch.

No one knows how long it will take to clean up the affected stretch of coastline, but in Miramar, it is estimated it will last at least two weeks.

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The environment ministry said 174 hectares — equivalent to 270 football fields — of coast were affected, and some 118 hectares at sea.

Marine currents have dispersed the oil all the way to the coast of Chancay district, more than 40 kilometers from where the spill occurred.

The health ministry has identified 21 affected beaches and warned bathers to stay away.

The spill has also affected hundreds of artisanal fishermen who operate on the central Peruvian coast.

They rely on catches of sole, lorna drum and Peruvian grunt — fish commonly used in the local delicacy ceviche, a marinated raw fish dish Peru is famous for.

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International

Winter Storm Fern Leaves 30 Dead and Over One Million Without Power Across the U.S.

The massive winter storm Fern, bringing polar temperatures, battered large portions of the United States for a third consecutive day on Monday, leaving at least 30 people dead, more than one million households without electricity, and thousands of flights grounded.

In the Great Lakes region, residents awoke to extreme cold, with temperatures dropping below -20°C. Forecasts indicate that conditions are expected to worsen in the coming days as an Arctic air mass moves south, particularly across the northern Great Plains and other central regions, where wind chills could plunge to -45°C, temperatures capable of causing frostbite within minutes.

Across the country, heavy snowfall exceeding 30 centimeters in roughly 20 states triggered widespread power outages. According to PowerOutage.com, nearly 800,000 customers remained without electricity on Monday morning, most of them in the southern United States.

In Tennessee, where ice brought down power lines, approximately 250,000 customers were still without power. Outages also affected more than 150,000 customers in Mississippi and over 100,000 in Louisiana, as utility crews struggled to restore service amid dangerous conditions.

International

Spain approves plan to regularize up to 500,000 migrants in Historic Shift

In November 2024, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a reform of the country’s immigration regulations aimed at regularizing 300,000 migrants per year over a three-year period, in an effort to counter population aging in a country where births have fallen by 25.6% since 2014, according to official data.

Going against the trend in much of Europe, Spain’s left-wing government has now approved an exceptional migrant regularization plan that could benefit up to 500,000 people, most of them from Latin America.

The measure will allow the regularization of around “half a million people” who have been living in Spain for at least five months, arrived before December 31, 2025, and have no criminal record, Migration Minister Elma Saiz explained on public television.

The plan, approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, establishes that applications will be processed between April and June 30, enabling beneficiaries to work in any sector and anywhere in the country, Saiz said.

“Today is a historic day for our country. We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, and one that is compatible with economic growth and social cohesion,” the minister later stated at a press conference.

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The socialist government of Pedro Sánchez stands out within the European Union for its migration policy, contrasting with the tightening of immigration measures across much of the bloc amid pressure from far-right movements.

Central America

Honduras swears in conservative president Asfura after disputed election

Conservative politician Nasry Asfura assumed the presidency of Honduras on Tuesday with an agenda closely aligned with the United States, a shift that could strain the country’s relationship with China as he seeks to confront the economic and security challenges facing the poorest and most violent nation in Central America.

Asfura’s rise to power, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, marks the end of four years of left-wing rule and secures Trump another regional ally amid the advance of conservative governments in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina.

The 67-year-old former mayor and construction businessman was sworn in during an austere ceremony at the National Congress, following a tightly contested election marred by opposition allegations of fraud and Trump’s threat to cut U.S. aid if his preferred candidate did not prevail.

Grateful for Washington’s support, Asfura—who is of Palestinian descent—traveled to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, before visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We need to strengthen relations with our most important trading partner,” Asfura said after being declared the winner of the November 30 election by a narrow margin, following a tense vote count that lasted just over three weeks.