International
Chile’s desert dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers
AFP
A mountain of discarded clothing including Christmas sweaters and ski boots cuts a strange sight in Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert in the world, which is increasingly suffering from pollution created by fast fashion.
The social impact of rampant consumerism in the clothing industry — such as child labor in factories or derisory wages — is well-known, but the disastrous effect on the environment is less publicized.
Chile has long been a hub of secondhand and unsold clothing, made in China or Bangladesh and passing through Europe, Asia or the United States before arriving in Chile, where it is resold around Latin America.
Some 59,000 tons of clothing arrive each year at the Iquique port in the Alto Hospicio free zone in northern Chile.
Clothing merchants from the capital Santiago, 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) to the south, buy some, while much is smuggled out to other Latin American countries. But at least 39,000 tons that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert.
“This clothing arrives from all over the world,” Alex Carreno, a former employee in the port’s import area, told AFP.
“What is not sold to Santiago nor sent to other countries stays in the free zone” as no one pays the necessary tariffs to take it away.
“The problem is that the clothing is not biodegradable and has chemical products, so it is not accepted in the municipal landfills,” said Franklin Zepeda, the founder of EcoFibra, a company that makes insulation panels using discarded clothing.
“I wanted to stop being the problem and start being the solution,” he told AFP about the firm he created in 2018.
– Water waste –
According to a 2019 UN report, global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014, and the industry is “responsible for 20 percent of total water waste on a global level.”
To make a single pair of jeans requires 7,500 liters (2,000 gallons) of water.
The same report said that clothing and footwear manufacturing contributes eight percent of global greenhouse gases, and that “every second, an amount of textiles equivalent to a garbage truck is buried or burnt.”
Whether the clothing piles are left out in the open or buried underground, they pollute the environment, releasing pollutants into the air or underground water channels.
Clothing, either synthetic or treated with chemicals, can take 200 years to biodegrade and is as toxic as discarded tires or plastics.
Not all the clothing goes to waste: some of the poorest people from this region of 300,000 inhabitants pick through the dumps to find things they need or can sell in their local neighborhood.
Venezuelan migrants Sofia and Jenny, who crossed into Chile only a few days earlier on a 350-kilometer journey, search through a clothing pile as their babies crawl over it.
The women are looking for “things for the cold,” given the desert’s nighttime temperatures drop to levels unheard of in their tropical homeland.
– Changing attitudes –
Chile, the richest country in South America, is known for the voracious consumerism of its inhabitants.
Fast fashion advertising “has helped to convince us that clothing makes us more attractive, that it makes us stylish and even cures our anxiety,” said Monica Zarini, who makes lamp shades, notebooks, containers and bags from recycled clothing.
Things are changing, though, according to Rosario Hevia, who opened a store to recycle children’s clothes before founding in 2019 Ecocitex, a company that creates yarn from pieces of discarded textiles and clothing in a poor state. The process uses neither water nor chemicals.
“For many years we consumed, and no one seemed to care that more and more textile waste was being generated,” she said.
“But now, people are starting to question themselves.”
International
Trump says GOP ‘learned a lot’ after democratic election wins
U.S. President Donald Trump said that he and the Republican Party “learned a lot” from the Democratic victories in Tuesday’s state and local elections. He also compared Democrats to “kamikaze pilots” over the ongoing budget standoff.
Speaking at an event with Republican senators on Wednesday, Trump described the results as an unexpected setback.
“These were very Democratic areas, but I don’t think it was good for Republicans. In fact, I don’t think it was good for anyone. But we had an interesting night and we learned a lot,” he said during remarks broadcast by the White House.
Trump agreed with pollsters that two key factors led to Republican losses in New York’s mayoral race and the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia.
International
Bolivia’s Jeanine Áñez freed after Supreme Court annuls her conviction
Former Bolivian interim president Jeanine Áñez was released from a women’s prison in La Paz on Thursday, where she had spent more than four and a half years for an alleged coup, after her conviction was annulled, AFP journalists confirmed.
Dozens of supporters and family members gathered outside the facility to celebrate her release. Áñez left the prison waving a Bolivian flag around 15:00 GMT.
“It is comforting to see that justice will once again prevail in Bolivia. She was the only woman who took on the role with bravery and courage,” said Lizeth Maure, a 46-year-old nurse who had come to show her support.
Áñez, a 58-year-old lawyer and conservative politician, governed Bolivia for nearly a year until November 2020, when she handed power to leftist leader Luis Arce.
She was arrested in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison for “resolutions contrary to the Constitution,” accused of illegally assuming the presidency after Evo Morales resigned in 2019 amid social unrest.
Her sentence was overturned on Wednesday by the Supreme Court of Justice, Bolivia’s highest judicial authority.
The court ruled that Áñez should have been subjected to a “trial of responsibilities” before Congress— a constitutional process reserved for sitting presidents, vice presidents, ministers, and top judges — rather than prosecuted in an ordinary criminal court.
As she was welcomed by relatives and supporters upon release, Áñez declared:
“I feel the satisfaction of having fulfilled my duty to my country, of never having bowed down. And I will never regret having served Bolivia when it needed me.”
International
Peru declares Mexico’s president Persona Non Grata over political asylum dispute
Peru’s Congress declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum persona non grata on Thursday, accusing her of “unacceptable interference in internal affairs” after granting political asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez.
The motion, introduced by right-wing parties, passed with 63 votes in favor, 33 against, and two abstentions. Lawmakers argue that Sheinbaum has maintained a hostile stance toward Peru since taking office.
Peru severed diplomatic relations with Mexico on Monday following the asylum decision. Chávez, who is facing charges for her alleged involvement in former President Pedro Castillo’s failed coup attempt in December 2022, remains under protection at the Mexican embassy residence in Lima.
Following the diplomatic break, interim President José Jerí said on X that Mexico’s chargé d’affaires in Peru, Karla Ornela, has been notified by the foreign ministry that she must leave the country within a strict deadline.
The Mexican government condemned Lima’s decision as “excessive and disproportionate,” asserting that offering asylum to Chávez is a legitimate act grounded in international law and does not constitute interference in Peru’s domestic matters.
Trump says GOP ‘learned a lot’ after democratic election wins
Bolivia’s Jeanine Áñez freed after Supreme Court annuls her conviction
Peru declares Mexico’s president Persona Non Grata over political asylum dispute
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